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Weeks of searching, more weeks of life on Stacy, and Zuko still hadn't found who he was looking for.

He was getting plenty sick of tunnel-crawling, too, and closer to a Punishment than was probably smart. And he hated to think of how much time "missions" were going to take away from his search . . . but whether he lacked time or not, he still needed to train.

The scarred prince ran through his katas in the Sensoriums, a breeze cooling the sweat on his back and blowing away the heat from his flames as he practiced in an open-air dojo. They were basic katas. His uncle would have been proud -

Except, no. He really wouldn't. Zuko faltered in his stance, remembering the last time he'd seen his uncle - the dim prison, the quiet disapproval in his voice, and Zuko's fireblast went wide as he stumbled.

Shit. At least nobody was there to see, right . . .?

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Zuko raises his only remaining eyebrow. "Are you suggesting I firebend at you?"

Dani stares at him for a few moments. Then she lifts a hand. And then she sticks that hand through her own stomach. And then pulls it out without any sort of harm being apparent. "Ghost powers, remember?"

"I remember, but firebending isn't a game. It's an ancient art and a dangerous form of fighting and I'm not going to shoot flames at a kid just because you're pretty sure you won't get hurt. I don't need that on my conscience."

"When did I say it was a game?" Dani asked, looking confused. "Training can be fun, but of course it's serious. I was thinking it was good practice for you and it was good practice for me to turn intangible quick." She shrugged. "Besides, ghosts can take a lot more than humans. As much as I look human like this, my body is make of ecto."

Zuko just shakes his head. "Maybe later."

"Fine then," Dani said with a roll of her eyes. "We could just do normal sparring if you think that helps.

"Do you know how to use weapons?"

Yes, because Zuko will take high-quality swords to the technically-toddler, but not throw fire at her.

"Not real weapons, no. Well, maybe. I never tried, but I mostly just wing whatever fighting I have to do anyway," Dani said with a shrug. And Dani is perfectly fine with either getting thrown at her.

She wings it. Great.

"Hand-to-hand it is."

Zuko places his hands together, bows once, and shifts into a stance. He'll see what she's working with, at least.

It's worked so far, at least. She only had a month of formalized training anyway.

She bows, before stepping back into a rather amateurish fighting stance. After a moment's debate, she decided to hold back the flashier ghost powers. Just more fair.

And after that decision, she ran forward, rather fast naturally in ghost form and throwing a punch for his stomach. Since, well, that's the easiest spot to reach.

In hand-to-hand, it's one month of formalized training versus fourteen years of intense martial discipline. She's fast, which is decent, but Zuko blocks her and stops short of landing a punch on her chest.

He steps back, into another easy stance. "In a real fight, I would have just knocked you over. Again."

She needs training. That much is obvious.

Dani looked at him in confusion at the stop, her other hand moving to grab his other arm. It would have reached it a second to late to block, had the punch continued and stopped a second after he did.

"Yeah...I would have been knocked over," she said, still looking up at him in confusion. "Why'd you stop?"

"Because once you were down, I would have followed up and won the fight."

He remains in his stance. "Try again."

Dani raised an eyebrow. Then she smirked. "Really? You sure you would have?" She asked and stepped back. "Don't stop unless you're going to make the finishing blow. Part of winging it is going with the flow of the fight," she said.

She took another few steps back, looking Zuko up and down. He seemed formalized to her, more than even Vlad. So, she decided to try a faint.

She ran forward again, pulling back a fist in an aim for a punch, but before she would throw it, she let her arm fall back completely, letting it throw her weight back as she shot out a leg to hit his to trip him up.

Zuko takes advantage of her shift in weight, shifting around her kick and sweeping her other leg out from underneath her.

Provided she doesn't use her ghost powers, that ought to send her straight to the ground. After which, Zuko steps back and waits for her to come at him again.

Feints are well and good, but he's been fighting Aang. He's never won, but it's really done wonders for his ability to fight on his feet - so to speak.

Uncle used to instruct his sparring partners to do this to him, when he was younger. It drove him insane, always being the one to launch the first blow, always to be blocked, knocked over, and not attacked because he just wasn't ready.

No ghost powers. Dani had already made that promise to her. Beyond the physical advantages naturally given because that's how her body was, she didn't use any of the real 'powers.' Just strength and speed she didn't normally have as a human. Or...most people normally had without a lot of training, honestly.

But that didn't mean she wasn't ready. She continued throwing back her weight with the arm she had thrown back, extending it fully to hit the ground first with her hand, arcing up her kicking leg to add more momentum to the pull on her leg had provided to perform a cartwheel to land back on her feet and didn't hesitate to kick forward and try and ram an elbow into his stomach.

She's flexible and quick, Zuko gives her that. A natural. Great.

He deflects her elbow, pushing her to the side with her own momentum. This is closer to the way Aang or that waterbender fight - redirecting energy, just like Uncle talked about learning from the waterbenders, forcing Dani along the paths of her own motion so that it's her own energy that carries her on.

Sooner or later he's going to have to hit her, though. He's not an airbender, or a waterbender, and firebending is not gentle, not soft. But there's nothing too attractive about the prospect of full-on hitting an enthusiastic little girl who hasn't had a master to teach her anything beyond the basics yet.

It's only to be expected, that the clone of an experienced fighter ended up as bit of a natural. A fast learning experienced fighter.

Though Dani had to admit, the deflection with her own energy was a bit new. She was used to hard hits. Training with Vlad, even training with the other clones, she expected to be hit. There was a reason she wasn't so sure Zuko would have won after that first hit.

She skidded to a halt, turning around quickly, and pausing. Direct approach wasn't working and neither her faints. She was better with an attacking enemy because then it was easier to get the jump on them. Straight on? Well, ghost powers helped with that.

Then again...maybe she didn't have to fly to get another angle? She dashed forward, moving like she was was going to slam straight into him with a headbutt, more or less. She wanted to see if she got the pattern right.

He flips over her.

Well, he doesn't so much flip as leap, then tuck-and-roll. Zuko's not as much of a gymnast as his sister is.

And then it's around with a block, because that probably only surprised her so much, if it did.

The flip hadn't been the expected reaction, but it ended in the result she was going for. She knew the headbutt had no shot and was thinking he'd redirect.

But ending up with him behind her and hopefully him having a few moments before he could make the full turn had been what she was going for and hoping for.

As soon as she saw him moving in the air, she jumped to forward, hitting the ground with her hands before pushing against the ground hard to propel back feet first like a rocket.

Except that her kick goes right into Zuko's block, her femurs countered by forearms rigorously strengthened over the years of brutal training his father, and later, his uncle, subjected him to.

He even catches both her feet in a lightning fast grab, and holds her there. This time, he's smiling a little.

"Clever. But you gave up your root."

Dani blinked. "The disadvantage of being short," she admitted. "But this way isn't one I'm stuck in, even without phasing," she said. "I could punch you from here if I'm not immediately thrown away. And most of my fighting with ghost powers has very little 'root,' since I'm usually flying, so that's not a focus to worry about, okay?" She explained. "Gonna fight back yet?"

Zuko was suddenly struck with an image of his uncle, during one of the many times they'd had to fight their way out of trouble, uprooting taller opponents without spilling a drop of his tea.

He actually laughed out loud. That had been funny. Not at the time, but now that he thought about it -

"Talk to my uncle about the 'disadvantages of being short' before you complain about them. He'll just laugh at you and give you tea."

He releases her legs.

"I'm not going to fight you. You've got talent, but you need a sifu, not a sparring partner."

Dani raised an eyebrow. "What, it's not a disadvantage to get your leg grabbed and seem to be hung up like a fish?" She asked.

Dani landed on her hands and arched to get her feet on the ground again before standing up straight. She turned at him, looking at him with a frown. "I don't know what a sifu is, but I'm good with sparring. Like I said, winging it is better when you got a flow. Hitting something not attacking is, well...kind of like hitting a rock. Or someone I don't want to fight anyway. When someone is fighting back, then there's more chance of them making an opening, something to take advantage of, or make them miss like you did with the deflection thing. I'd like to fight more of that, though. No one I fought ever did that and it might be good practice."

"A sifu is a martial arts instructor. The sort of person who teaches you what to do to get out of a hold like that - and how not to get in one in the first place."

Zuko is still smiling, just a bit.

"How long have you been training?"