Of Fire

Chapter 11

Detia watched in silent awe, the same as almost everyone else with the exception of Toph, at the nearly transparent figure before her that came from the metal box. Slowly Detia walked towards the figure, whose small, pale golden eyes followed her every step. 'I am Detia,' the little girl thought, feeling stupid because it wasn't a real person. 'Uh, princess of the Fire Nation.'

The figure lifted a white eyebrow, though its features remained cold. "You are a lightning bender, correct?" Linka inquired. Detia nodded, though she only assumed she was a lightning bender. There was still a chance that she could just be a really good fire bender. "Good," she said. "The egg you see behind me is the egg of a Thunderbird; do you know what that is?"

The little girl turned to look at the blank faces of the adults in her presence. 'No,' she answered honestly.

The figure sighed. "The Thunderbird is a magnificent bird, the emblem of the Kingdom of Lightning, much like the Dragon is for the Kingdom of Fire." The explanation did not stop even though a few of the adults wondered about Linka's name of the Fire Nation. "But unlike the Dragon, Thunderbirds are extremely rare, only having one offspring every one-hundred years. Their nest was located in the top of the tallest building of my city. When it fell, so did the Thunderbirds. The one here is the only remaining egg on the planet."

Detia looked at the white and yellow egg the lightning princess was talking about. 'When will it hatch?' Detia asked, afraid that because it had been hidden for so long that the chick inside was long dead.

"The Thunderbird will not hatch until the egg is completely yellow."

"How do you do that?" Lu Ten asked.

Linka ignored him and did not answer his question, which made the other children chuckle. 'How do we do that?' Detia repeated, through her chuckles.

"An egg belonging to the Thunderbird needs a massive amount of electrical energy in order to hatch. The only people who've been able to supply this large amount at one time were my mother, the Goddess of Lightning, whose name is currently not spoken," her golden eyes rolled at the last six words, which were said in a dull monotone voice. "and a Heavenly Maiden."

"A Heavenly Maiden?" Aang inquired.

Linka's pale golden eyes turned to the Avatar. So full of hate and malice was the glare she leveled at Aang that it took every ounce of strength in him to stay seated. "What's a Heavenly Maiden?" Toph asked in a bored tone that told everyone she only asked because of the way Aang was reacting and not because she wanted to know.

The figure turned to Toph and examined her for a minute before replying, "Don't you already know, Terren?"

"It's Toph," the Earth Bender corrected, leaning back in her seat with her hands behind her head and one leg propped up on the other.

"Of course, my apologies I confused you with another," Linka replied with a slight bow of her head then turned back to Detia as if the child had asked the question. "A Heavenly Maiden is a female member of Hishou Raikou with extremely honed abilities, like myself. At their highest level, lightning benders have the potential to control the electromagnetic pull of the planet and can negate it, making it appear as if we were flying. We line our clothing with metal in order to potentially use it as a weapon and to inform the populace of our Heavenly Maiden Status. That is a Heavenly Maiden."

"Why only Female?" Ty Lee asked, half expecting the transparent figure not to answer.

Linka looked at Ty Lee, judging her worth. "The female body is far more capable of change than the male body. And since change is ultimately created by electricity, logic would conclude that women are more powerful with lightning bending than men."

"Wait, wait!" Sokka exclaimed. "How come everyone's just sitting here like a transparent woman that comes from a metal box is the most natural thing in the world?"

All the adults looked at each other with a shrug. "We've seen weirder," Katara answered. "Besides, it has to be some kind of magic."

"Wrong," Toph interrupted.

"You are correct, Toph. The image you see before you is an interactive recording of myself," Linka answered. "The very last form of technology developed by my people; the only form of technology that survived the fall, it is called a hologram. As Heir and rightful ruler, it falls upon my shoulders to preserve what little is left of my people, the egg being the greatest of those items. There is no magic involved."

"Told you," the Earth bender taunted. "So, Linka right…?"

"That is correct."

Toph nodded. "Before we get on to how to hatch the egg, tell me what you know about the Avatar?" Toph's eyebrow lifted with her smirk. "You said you preserved your culture so surely you should know."

"What relevance is it to you?" the hologram asked, taking a seated position, though it appeared as though she were sitting on nothing.

Toph sighed. "If you haven't noticed Aang is the Avatar, and apparently, Detia is a lightning bender. So, apparently – because I haven't seen it – she doesn't like him."

"With good reason," Linka approved.

"Yeah. He said something about his first life being an Ass and destroying the people of lightning or something…"

"That's true. He is responsible for our destruction," Linka supplied.

Toph nodded. "And I get that she hates him for it. I would too. But from hanging around him, being the Avatar isn't that bad. So why would it be considered a punishment?"

Linka tilted her head slightly as her pale gold eyes examined the blind Earth bender. "Essentially, the Avatar is a joke," she started making Detia and Azula smile while Aang flinched. "Nothing more than an ordinary human being blessed with the power endowed to him or her by the spirits of this planet. Despite what everyone thought, my mother did more than keep the other gods in line. She balanced the spirit world and human world as well. She had the uncanny ability to solve any dispute, regardless of what realm one resided in. With her gone, that balance and peace vanished. The gods rampaged through the Earth and all its realms, destroying so much, and no one could seem to stop them.

"The spirits developed a way to combine their power to rival that of a god but could not decide who would get it for fear of corruption of the soul. They decided on the one who caused the imbalance, because he could not get more corrupt. He accepted the power but used it to further ravish my people dropping our number from 169 to about 26. I killed him," she said without flinching, as if she was stating that the sky was blue. "And the power was given to another who was more responsible. He scheduled a meeting with the gods and told them what they should do to resolve their issues. They laughed at him, calling him a false god who did not deserve a say in their dealings. Thus the name 'Avatar' arose, a false god. For his disrespect they stripped him of half his power but were never heard from after that day." The hologram finished.

"So he did stop the War of the Gods," Aang exclaimed.

"Wrong again twinkle toes." Toph chuckled. "The Gods had already decided to call it quits before he called the meeting. Once they saw what the spirits were willing to do to stop the war, it was decided without a doubt and they vanished just like the balance did."

"With the absence of all of the gods, chaos ensued within each nation. Pillaging, assassination, murder, mindless brutal crimes all within their own borders." Linka added.

'When they ruled, the gods held an iron fist over the order of their nations,' Detia finished, allowing the Avatar and everyone else to hear her. 'But that was a long time ago,' she said with a wave of her hand. 'I want to hatch the egg, tell me how to do it. Now,' the little girl demanded, making her mommy sigh and her mother chuckle.

"She gets it from you," Ty Lee whispered, nudging her lover.

Azula only shrugged. "I know and I love her for it."

Linka and Toph laughed outright, "So demanding."

"Yeah, what if I had another question?" Toph asked, still smiling.

Detia shrugged. 'Do you?'

"Na," Toph answered.

"I do," Iroh interrupted with a warm smile. "If I may be so bold," the hologram looked at the old man before nodding for him to continue, "why did your people come to the fire nation?"

An elegant white eyebrow lifted. "My younger sister was the Fire Lady." She answered simply. "Don't you know your own heritage?" The quizzical expression on the old man's face made her explain why she asked. "I can tell that you are royal because of your eyes. Our eyes are the only physical aspect of the lightning benders that is dominant. The original color of the eyes for a member of the Kingdom of Fire is brown to red. Gold and Grey are usual colors of the people of lightning."

'It was a very long time ago. You can't expect anyone to know.' Detia remarked before anyone could respond to that. 'Now, the egg?'

Linka chuckled. "Of course, to hatch the egg you have to shoot it with a large blast of electricity, or you could wait for a large thunderstorm. Normally, the mother and father of the egg would supply the necessary amount. However, seeing as the egg is the last and you are the last, you have to do it."

'So I just shoot it?' Detia inquired.

The image nodded and Detia took the Firebending stance. Everyone was silent as Detia centered her chi, breathing in and out to calm herself. The pure white light of her attack blinded the group for only a minute until it dissipated. The egg glowed yellow and stopped. Detia grunted in disappointment at what she saw. The yellow lightning that streaked the egg's surface was larger than it was before but white still covered half the surface. "Nice try," Lu Ten said honestly, with no hint that he was mocking her – just as eager as the other children to see what the legendary Thunderbird really looked like. Like all of the children in the Fire Nation who participated in listening to any form of storytelling, he had only heard the fairytale of how the Dragon aided the Thunderbird in something (it changed depending on who told the story) and in return the Thunderbird granted only the best of Fire Benders the ability of lightning. He had never seen a dragon but a Thunderbird was rarer and therefore cooler. "Maybe if you try it again it'll hatch."

Detia sighed and returned to the same stance. "Stop." The hologram remarked. "You are bending like a Fire Bender. And while that blast was impressive, it was only a fraction of what you could have done."

'Then how do I do it?' Detia asked eagerly, noticing that her mother was paying close attention as well.

"A Fire bender produces most of their attacks from the energy within themselves." Linka informed. "A Lightning bender produces their attack from everything. There is nothing in creation that is without electricity. I'm assuming that you believe everyone sees the same as you do." Detia lifted an eyebrow and nodded, making Linka sigh. "That is incorrect. A lighting bender is potentially capable of seeing the basest elements that make up an object. In a ray of light a normal human can see the particles that float in the air. You are capable of seeing that regardless of the sun. To you, a blade of grass is so much more than a blade of grass. Every discoloration, every vein, even the water that flows through those veins, you can even see the oxygen as it is released. Is that right?" Detia nodded, shocking her parents and everyone there.

"You can!" Ty Lee exclaimed.

Detia shrugged. 'I thought everyone saw that way.' She turned back to the image when her mommy collapsed back in her chair in shock. 'How is that relevant?'

"You see this way because as a lightning bender you can take the electrons that produce these actions and use them. Photosynthesis for one plant alone is 100 terawatts. That's a lot of electricity in case you didn't know. You do have to train your eyes to see beyond the surface, but it is not hard. All you have to do is tell yourself that that is what you should be seeing, and the impulses in your body will do the rest. It is true however, that it is not necessary to do this. As you grow and become more powerful simply knowing that the power is there is all you will need. But seeing as you are a beginner it is something you need to learn."

Detia looked at Azula, as if asking permission. "Go ahead, try it."

The little girl closed her eyes and did exactly as the hologram told her. The instant she opened her eyes, she fell to the ground in surprise and started to grab at the things she saw. "Don't grab at them, it makes you appear less than sane." She did as she was told with more difficulty than she would have liked, her eyes locking rapidly on many things at once. After a minute of watching the things in front of her, Detia closed her eyes and opened them again – seeing as she usually saw. She only shrugged lightly when Linka looked at her with a quizzical expression. "All right. Now, to hatch the egg you will need to take a basic Earth bending stance, to secure yourself to the ground," she explained as she took the stance. "Your body is the center, where you can control and redirect electricity. Electricity flows like water through your body if for whatever reason you misstep and it gets trapped in your body if you are rooted to the ground you can disperse it there, with no negative effects to your person."

Detia mimicked the stance perfectly, planting her feet solidly on the ground, her knees bent at the perfect angle parallel to earth. Toph laughed. "She's better than you, twinkle toes."

Aang only sighed, though he didn't honestly care. He was more interested in the things he was learning about this ancient form of bending. "Good," Linka said, ignoring Toph and the Avatar. "Now concentrate on your surroundings. You know what you are looking for, take it from everything." Detia closed her eyes, controlling her breathing and concentrated on everything.

The sky darkened as thick black clouds rolled along the horizon. "Earth," Linka's voice echoed as the air stilled and Toph bolted from her seat, ran over and grabbed the smallest children – yelling at the other children to follow her, and ran back past the other adults to a good twenty feet away from Detia. The adults watched in confusion as this took place but quickly stood and followed Toph when the Earth began to rumble under their feet. Azula backed up to fifteen feet from her daughter, but was still keeping closer than anyone else. As if a massive force was bearing down on it, the solid ground dented in around the Lightning bender. The vegetation within the ten foot circle evaporating into nothing as bits of rock and clumps of Earth lifted into the air.

"Air," Linka continued.

The fluid transition from Earth form to Air was smooth and flawless, as if she had practiced this move thousands of times before. Bringing a gust of wind with it that was so powerful the chairs everyone was sitting in flew towards the girl. Azula only had time to yell her little monster's name in warning before the gust hit the circle, revealing a dome of energy that surrounded it. The dome didn't stop the metal chairs, but the instant they entered the dome, sparks flew and the chairs vanished, the same as the grass. Within the dome, the air was still, the only movement being her short white hair as it rose like the rocks.

"Water," the hologram listed next.

Again, the transition was flawless and fluid. The rolling sound of thunder grabbed the attention of those who watched in terror and awe. Large black clouds grew like waves upon them. Water poured in thin heavy sheets like needles over them, making them move to the covered walkway, though it only helped a little. The only one who stayed her ground was Azula, who watched in sheer amazement as the water hit the dome of energy, further solidifying it. The drops elongated to a point like icicles the further they reached into the dome. They sparkled like diamonds in the rays of the sun that still shone in the opposite part of the sky, as if drawn to the child doing all this damage, before vanishing like everything else.

"Fire," Linka finished.

Though the transitions before this one were fluid and flawless, seemingly done by one who had practiced for years, the transition to the Fire bending form was magnificent and awe inspiring. So perfect and unblemished that it appeared as though only a god could do it. Just as suddenly as the form was completed, the light within the dome vanished, leaving only pitch blackness. Before Azula could move towards the dome, a single line of light broke through, visible within. One foot of the Fire Nation Princess landed on the ground when she had to block her eyes as a blinding beam of light broke through the dome like a shell, filling the entire garden with light as it blew into the egg.

The egg glowed a bright yellow and dimmed, completely covered in yellow with no white visible. But it did not hatch. As quickly as they had come, the clouds and the rain and the wind disappeared, leaving only a light dusting of water on the earth and few broken branches. Though, that was the very last thing on Azula's mind as she rushed to her daughter. Detia lay in a small puddle of water in the crater she had created, face down. "Detia!" Azula yelled as she slid into the small wide crater, picking up her child and turning her over in her lap. "Come on you little monster, wake up," Azula demanded, shaking the girl slightly.

The girl's eyes opened slightly and she smiled. 'I'll never do that again.'

Azula chuckled lightly, pleased that her child was okay. "How do you feel?" the princess asked as Ty Lee made it to her wife's side, sitting in the puddle beside Azula.

"Hey baby," the acrobat cooed, brushing back Detia's bangs from her face. "That was just…wow."

Detia's smile widened. 'Thanks. I'm so tired.'

Almost as if on cue, the child's golden eyes rolled back and she collapsed in Azula's arms. "She'll be okay. She's just exhausted," Azula commented, predicting correctly her wife's reaction to their daughter suddenly collapsing.

Aside from Erza, who broke out of her mother's grasp and ran to Azula when her aunt carried her cousin towards the palace, everyone stayed their distance from the little girl. Azula didn't even bother with them as she and Ty Lee took Detia to her room, Ezra in tow despite her mother's wishes.

~x~

Detia woke to the annoying sound of morning birds chirping at her open window. The sun's morning rays filtered into her room, waking her. She sighed in annoyance as she turned and buried her head into her pillow, trying to go back to sleep. After ten minutes of laying there and not going to sleep, the little girl sighed again and sat up, finding that all of her muscles ached. "You awake?" the voice of her favorite three-year-old twin asked from beside her.

The lightning bender turned to the other side of her bed, unsurprised to see Ezra lying next to her. Detia nodded to the question as the little girl sat up, her hair unbound and flowing just below her shoulders – longer and thicker than Detia's own. 'How long was I asleep?' Detia asked.

Ezra shrugged, as of yet unable to understand time. "A long time," she answered.

'What happened to your face?' Detia asked worriedly when she noticed the scratch along her cousin's cheek.

The little girl blushed and looked away. "Nothing," she said, but her mind flashed back to what had to be the day before.

'Ezra.' Detia sighed when her little cousin's memory stopped. The little girl's golden eyes, a shade darker than Detia's, looked up at her idol with a sad expression. Her thoughts told the mind reader that Mai, Zuko and Iroh had all chided her, sending her to her room for what she had done. Detia smiled and bumped her fist to her cousin's chin. 'Way to show them true Fire Nation pride by not crying.'

Ezra smiled then crossed her small arms over her chest and scowled. "I don't cry."

Detia chuckled and pulled her little cousin into a hug. 'Thank you for defending me when I couldn't do it myself.'

The three-year-old hugged her cousin back, forcing back her tears. "They were being so mean. You're not a bad person, and Lu Ten wouldn't even defend you."

'I know.' Detia agreed, after all she had seen everything that had happened through the little girl's mind. 'But you still shouldn't have pushed…what was his name…Gyatso?' Ezra nodded. 'You shouldn't have pushed Gyatso into that puddle.'

The little girl pulled away, her lower lip quivering. "What should I 'a done then?"

Detia smiled, 'Punched him the stomach." She made the motion and uppercut a pillow, making her cousin laugh. 'It would've taken him a minute to get up then.'

"Detia," Azula's chiding voice called, drawing both of the girl's attention to the door. "You know better than that."

'What did I do?' Detia asked.

"Giving your cousin faulty advice," Azula elaborated. "If you really wanted to floor him," she told Ezra, "when you punch someone in the stomach make sure to punch up into the diaphragm. That will knock him out for at least ten minutes." There was a short demonstration that made Ezra laugh. "Now that you know, would you please do me a favor and inform your aunt that Detia is awake."

The three-year-old nodded and slid off the bed before running through the palace to where her mom was, assuming that her aunt was with her. 'Did she really get into a fight with one of the Avatar's children because of me?' Detia asked.

Azula smiled as she sat on the bed beside her child. "Yes, she did. I've never been more proud of one of my brother's children."

The girl's golden eyes cast down to the covers. 'She got hurt because of me.'

"You should see the other kid." Azula chuckled. "The little brat has two black eyes. I didn't know a three-year old could hit that hard, except for you of course. He would still have those black eyes if his mother hadn't healed him."

Detia chuckled as well but sobered quickly. 'What was it about exactly?'

The princess sighed. "She wouldn't tell us but Lu Ten said that they were saying things about you, mean things. The little coward let his sister do all the dirty work. He's so much like his father." She grunted in disgust. "I don't know the details exactly, but I'm assuming it has to do with the crater you left in the garden."

'I left a crater in the garden!' Detia asked excitedly, making Azula laugh.

"Yes you did," Azula confirmed. "And brought on a short but terrible storm. I don't know how lightning bending works, but it seemed like you simply took everything that entered that little bubble of yours and disintegrated it."

Detia shook her head. 'That's not what I did. I just took the electrons from the molecules. When the base structure changes so suddenly, the form is no more and appears to disintegrate.' She paused and looked confused. 'I didn't know I knew that.'

The princess laughed again. "At least it sounded smart," she teased, watching with amusement as her child's face fell in mock annoyance.

'I am smart,' she declared, wincing when she tried to cross her arms.

"Are you alright?" Azula asked, her teasing mood vanishing.

Detia nodded. 'It feels like I trained really hard using all of my muscles, even ones I didn't know I had. I'm just sore.'

The Princess nodded. "You did do amazing things yesterday."

'I slept all day?' Detia asked incredulously, but her features lightened. 'I guess it could be worse.'

"That's true. You could have slept for three days like you did when you were two. You remember that?"

Detia nodded, but before another word could be spoken between them, Ty Lee ran into the room, not stopping until her daughter was in her arms. 'Mommy,' Detia whined half-heartedly.

"Don't you mommy me, young lady. Do you know how worried I was?" Detia didn't answer. "You need to stop doing things that're going to make me worry."

'I'll try,' Detia promised, smiling despite the fact that her Mommy's death grip called a hug was hurting her aching muscles.

"That's all I want to hear," the acrobat admitted and let the girl go, kissing her forehead for emphasis. "How do you feel?"

'Achy,' Detia answered again, earning her a softer hug from her mommy. 'Oh!' the little girl exclaimed as if it were an afterthought. 'Did the egg hatch?'

Both Azula and Ty Lee sighed. "No," Ty Lee sighed, after she and Azula stared at each other for a second, silently debating on who should tell her. She gestured to the large yellow egg that sat comfortably on a pillow in one of the chairs near the window. "It's all yellow like she said it should be, but it hasn't hatched. We had some guards put it up here."

'Did you ask Linka why?' Detia inquired.

Azula pulled a round metal object from the stand beside the bed and handed it to her daughter. "It doesn't work anymore. The engineers Zuko has working for him said it short-circuited. The technology is far to advanced for any of them to even know where to start fixing it."

'Is it me or does everyone Uncle Zuko hires seem to be completely useless?' she asked as she looked the device over, earning a chuckle from both her parents. Carefully, she placed the item on the bed beside her, looking up at her parents. 'Do you think what I did yesterday will hurt my chances at making friends?'

Ty Lee and Azula looked at each other at the seemingly random question. "I don't see why it would?" Ty Lee offered. "You're a sweet girl. But…" Detia flinched slightly at the 'but', though smiled when her mommy pulled a clump of dirt from her hair. "You do need a bath."

Azula chuckled. "We'll get the bath ready," Azula offered, surprising both Ty Lee and Detia with her silent offer. "What?" the princess inquired. "She may have bruises somewhere, and if we plan to continue training tomorrow, I need to know where she's sore the most."

A sly expression crossed the acrobat's features. "Sure, whatever you say, sweetheart. You just want to make sure she's okay."

Azula scoffed at the notion and stood, walking out of the room with over-the-top dignity. Ty Lee giggled, "Come to our room in ten minutes. I know you want to look at that egg."

Detia smiled, her mommy knew her so well, as Ty Lee left the room after her wife. When they were gone, the little girl carefully slipped out of bed, wincing when her feet made contact with sold floor, and slowly made her way to the egg. Without touching it, she looked at the solid yellow egg, finding no white spots and wondering why it hadn't hatched. For five minutes she examined the egg, then sighed and started for the door. Even though her mommy said ten minutes, she figured with the way she was feeling she should get a head start. She touched the egg, running her hand over the smooth surface as she passed it and didn't look back until the sound of cracking reached her ears.

Faster than she thought her body could move at that moment, she was at the egg, watching as the yellow darkened where her hand had been then simply falling off. She moved back as the egg began to shake, smiling from ear to ear as one yellow wing broke free from the shell, shattering the hard membrane like it was a thin layer of ice. Its long, jagged yellow feathers fluffed out of that visible wing, revealing the grey feathers at the base of the wing, as it made a swift move downward, cutting through the shell like a warm knife through butter. A long yellow neck uncoiled from its shell like shape against a grey chest, its grey head going in a circle as if stretching the muscles, until two innocent dark grey eyes looked at Detia down a long beak. The bird's head tilted to the side as the yellow feathers at the back of its head popped up. 'Hi,' she thought, hoping that it could understand her.

It tilted its head to the other side before calling out loudly in a beautiful song-bird-type voice. Detia's smile widened, if it was possible, as it jumped down from the chair and hopped over to her, rubbing it's head against her lower torso. She knelt, though it was taller than her when she did. 'What's your name?' she asked, and it tilted its head. 'You don't have one. Hm. Are you a girl?' The bird made a squawking sound as if it was disgusted, making her laugh. 'Alright, a boy name then,' she thought. 'How about thunder? I know not very original…'

'I like it,' a young male voice echoed in her head, throwing her off guard and knocking her to her bottom.

'You can talk like me?' she asked, and he tilted his head again, before taking a hold of her night shirt and prompting her to get up.

She did as she was prompted, standing when he answered, 'I can.'

Impulsively, she hugged the bird. 'Wait till my parents see you!'

TBC

~Bonus Random Scene~ A Year Later ~

~Because I felt like writing it but it was too short to make into a chapter of its own and really has little place in the current, which is more than it would have in future chapters so it's here. XP~

"Are you ready, Detia?" Lu Ten asked as they walked with their parents towards the Fire Nation Academies.

Detia only glared at him, making him laugh. Just a couple of minutes ago her 8-year-old cousin was kicking and screaming and trying just about anything to get out of starting another year at the academy. Detia had only stared at him like he was an idiot, holding the hand of her mommy as her mother worked things out with the teachers or something. Little did he know but she had thrown a fit before they even left the palace, that way no one in public could see her doing it. He, apparently, didn't have a problem with ruining his Image.

The little six-year-old had successfully made her way through an entire week of school, a trial week as her mother had called it, without fainting from the overload of minds. After hatching the egg, Detia found that such things as blocking minds and\or focusing on one was much easier. But any more than eight hours with more than ten people within a twenty foot radius of her still made her head hurt and made it hard to concentrate. Azula had come up with a way to solve that problem. The princess was arranging it so that Detia would sit at the back of the class room on the far left side, cutting the boundaries she had to worry about into a fourth. From that seat she only had to deal with approximately 3 people's minds – since the other two desks beside hers were empty – and she could easily block those.

Unfortunately, she also found out that news and rumors flew like wildfire and some of them never left. The rumors about what happened when she hatched the egg, that she was some kind of demon was the most popular one, made the other girls shy away from her. And the ones who didn't only wanted to be her friend because of her status. At first, she was okay with that. But she was no pushover, and when she wouldn't allow them push her around, they stopped being her friends. Azula informed her that she didn't need friends like them anyways, and if she gave her their family names, she could make them regret messing with her. As much as Detia wanted to, she didn't, telling her mother that it wasn't worth it. They weren't worth her time. The Princess smiled proudly at her daughter.

Lu Ten waved as he walked with his parents and sisters over to the boy's academy. Luckily it wasn't far, since she had to walk over there every day during physical education. The first day of her class was basic breathing exercises she had been doing since she was one. So impressed was her teacher that he passed her up three grades, which was learning mediocre Fire Bending techniques – things she had been learning since she was three. At the end of the day after going through countless drills, Detia finally ended up with nearly graduated male students. Where she would be learning highly advanced techniques that incorporated the other bending styles, which she also knew but was tired of moving up so pretended she didn't and messed up on purpose. It also allowed her to use her mommy's techniques, which was a major bonus. Ty Lee found out first and hugged her daughter for ten minutes straight, telling her how happy and proud she was. When Azula found out, she had smiled that proud, smug smile.

Just like she was smiling now as she ushered Detia into the brightly colored classroom, amateurish cutouts hanging on the wall, and pointed out the seat she would be sitting in. The little girl sighed and looked out the window, spying Thunder perched on the branches of the closest tree, nearly drooling at the unfortunate animal he had in his clutches. Detia smiled at her friend, yes friend – not pet – one of the two she had, the other being her cousin who wouldn't start school for another year. Reflexively, she caught a ball of paper that was thrown at her, glancing around the room to see if she could tell who threw it. The group of giggling girls all huddled up together with one or another occasionally looking her way was the first big hint. Their way too obvious thoughts the other hint. The lightning bender rolled her eyes and un-crumpled the paper, glad that her mother had left just in time to not see that. Agni only knows what her Mother would do to those girls' families if she found out what was written on that piece of paper.

Detia caught the eyes of one of the girls and lit the paper on fire, incinerating it instantly, not even leaving ashes. The girl gulped and turned back to her friends. Before something else could be done, the teacher walked in and everyone set at attention. They went through the basic routine; bow, say hello to the teacher, and recite the Fire Nation pledge. The teacher was young, her dark brown hair, which matched her eyes perfectly, done up in a traditional topknot. "Alright class." She started, seeing Detia off in the corner. "I'm glad you could make it this year, princess," she addressed and Detia nodded professionally. "Alright, class." She turned to the board behind her. "Today we'll be learning how to subtract." Half the class groaned.

Detia was part of that half, scowling when she heard Thunder's laughter all the way from the tree he was in. This was going to be a long year, and unless they got some new students, a lonely one as well.

The end.

A/N: Read Beyond Birth….do it… :} Also, I'm working on a prologue for this story based solely on Ty Lee and Azula called Ember Island. Look out of it.