Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: There's not a lot of good choices. Toph's parents tried to hide her away, the less said about Ozai the better, Hakoda and Ursa left (both for understandable reasons, but they did) and we know absolutely nothing about Aang or Suki's parents. So Kya has to be up there for giving her life to save her daughter.

Victor Enrique Z: I'm fine thank you, how are you?

As Always, Please Review!

"Steady, you two. I will not have you get paint all over the Earth King's walls."

Teruo the stage manager stood with his arms folded, supervising as Mai and Zuko lifted a piece of freshly painted background down the hall.

The theatre company had been rehearsing their new play for most of the day now, and progress seemed good. Fumika had been given the role of the Air Nomad, and so had gone to observe and speak to some real ones as they went around their business in the Upper Ring. The rest were still in their rooms, trying to get to grips with their characters.

All of which left Teruo, Mai and Zuko the glamorous job of preparing the sets. Their clothes were already covered with multicoloured specks of paint; Zuko knew they were going to have to go to the cleaners when they got home. They were lifting a panel with an image of a cityscape in the Earth Kingdom under a vibrant red sunset down the corridor, having just finished painting it, to where it would be erected behind the stage during the appropriate scenes in the play the next night.

"We are being careful," Zuko grumbled.

"Then be more careful. We cannot blow this."

Teruo was not a bad taskmaster. He mucked in just as much as they did during the painting, and was meticulous in showing them what to do. But he was very insistent that this go right. Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes and continued reversing down the hall. He made eye contact with Mai, who subtly mouthed just go along with it at him. He smiled at her. The corner of her mouth quirked up in response.

Then a door opened just behind him. Mai's eyes widened and she went to shout a warning, before something slammed into his back. He cried out and stumbled forward, dropping his end of the panel, which fortunately landed paint side up.

For a moment, nobody moved. Then Zuko swivelled to see a sheepish looking air nomad girl who looked about the same age as him and Mai, wearing robes of Air Nomad yellow and orange, as well as a pendant made of wood prominently displaying the three spirals that were the symbol of her people. She was clutching a glider staff and looking at them with wide grey eyes. Her hair was done up in the usual way for air nomad women; long at the back, reaching down almost to her waist, but shaved at the front to expose a large area of her forehead. There, a blue arrow tattoo was visible.

"What are you playing at?" Chikao told her angrily. "Look where you're going!"

"I'm sorry!" The girl held her hands up apologetically. "I didn't know you were there! I was just coming to see my elders and-"

She stopped.

"Do I know you?"

Oh, agni.

"No!" Zuko said hurriedly. "I mean, I don't think so. We're the refugees they hired to put on a play for you?"

"Oh yes, I did hear about that," the girl smiled at them. She bowed.

"So sorry about your panelling. My name is Chomden."

"I'm Li," Zuko told her, falling back on his fake name. "And this is Ren."

Mai gently put down the other end of the panel and bowed.

"What's the play?" Chomden asked curiously.

"It's called 'Heaven and Earth,'" Teruo told her, beginning to calm down a bit. "Apparently Air Nomads really like it."

"Oh, that one?" Chomden smiled. "I love that one!"

She assumed a dramatic stance, put on a booming voice and quoted a line from the play.

'"I was made to roam the sky, and not to be bound in place, it is true freedom that I seek. But freedom comes with many faces, and now it's wearing yours. If I am to be tethered to the earth, let it be with the tethers of love.'"

She grinned at them enthusiastically.

"I've been in it myself!"

"You have?"

"Yes. I used to enjoy performing back at the temple. Unfortunately, haven't had much time since..."

She trailed off.

"Anyway, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

Teruo considered. Then he gestured to the panel.

"Maybe you can at least help us carry this."

Chomden looked down, sighed, handed Teruo her glider-staff and then helped Zuko and Mai to pick the panel up again. Together they moved off down the hall, taking extra care when they came to any intersections, until at last they reached a pair of double doors. The sound of muffled voices could be heard through them.

"It's through here," Teruo nodded. He pushed open the door, and the voice suddenly became loud and clear.

"-Are already at war with the Fire Nation!"

As they carried the panel into the room, several groups of monks and nuns were visible, having a heated argument. Some of them looked around at them, but others were too involved. A nun with long grey hair was speaking at that moment.

"I don't know if the rest of you have forgotten," she thundered, "but there is no option but to intervene. The Fire Nation made that choice for us when it threw us out of our home!"

Chomden flinched at those words. Zuko noticed.

"How can we intervene?" A Monk spoke up in response. "We cannot compromise our morals."

"But do our morals mean we must roll over and submit to tyrants?" The nun replied.

"It is not our fight!"

"It will be if we let the Fire Nation win!"

Together they carried the panel up onto a slightly raised stage and behind a pair of curtains. Then they lay it down flat to continue drying.

"To be honest, you probably could have left it to dry where you painted it," Chomden observed.

"Do I tell you how to do your job?" Teruo replied testily. Then he softened.

"Thank you," he said. "Despite a rocky start, you've been a great help."

"You're welcome!" Chomden smiled, although it did not quite reach her eyes. Seeing this, Zuko frowned.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "We can leave if you want."

"It's fine," Chomden nodded. "It's just what they're saying out there brings back bad memories."

Zuko nodded, not knowing what to say. In the event, Chomden broke the silence.

"I know what it's like to be forced out of your home," she said. "I feel like we can understand each other."

"We can?" Mai asked.

"We can," Chomden confirmed. "Because I'm from the Western Air Temple. I was there when the Fire Nation started the war. They invaded it and drove us all out."

She looked down, sadly.

"We have that in common," Zuko told her gently. "It's not fun, is it."

"No, it's not," Chomden agreed.

His father had probably given the orders for that, hadn't he, Zuko realised. He had come face to face, yet again, with suffering that was the consequence of his family's actions. A nagging sense of guilt began to creep back into his mind.

Chomden shook her head.

"Is it alright if I join you?" She asked. "For the painting. I just need to speak to my elders and then I'll be with you. Seems like fun."

"If you want you can be in the show," Teruo said.

"Could I?" Chomden grinned. "I think I'd like that."

"Assuming I can get Chikao to agree, of course," Teruo muttered under his breath, as the group ducked back under the curtain, past the bickering elders, and out of the door.