Welcome everyone once again to the new and improved version of my story! For any possible new readers out there, I should post a little disclaimer. This story will get very, very dark. A gave it an M rating for a reason. It's basically set in a post apocalyptic version of the ATLA universe that no longer has an Avatar, and... let's just say things have really taken a turn for the worse.

This story is mostly based on the movie Children of Men. However, I have taken some liberties with the story, and some things have been changed around to keep it fresh. This is true especially towards the end.

So, with all that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy my story!


Everything looks morbid. Morbid and gray. That is the feeling and the color that radiates from the city now. I see it on every person's face as they walk past me on these streets. Streets that are riddled with garbage and other unidentified forms of waste. To be honest, I think this feeling radiates from the entire world now. To me it's depressing and chilling at the same time. Especially considering how different the world used to be before all of this. Even during the Great War there was at least a sense of hope. Now there is nothing.

I breathe a deep sigh and look up to see a sky filled with clouds accompanied by the occasional rain drop. This weather doesn't exactly add anything positive to the atmosphere. But of course, gazing into the sky while strolling along the sidewalk takes away from my ability to see in front of me and my foot lands in a pile of trash.

"Shit," I say to myself, not caring if anyone hears me. "Just what I needed."

I lean against a nearby wall and lift my foot up to see if I had stepped in anything unpleasant. A quick inspection of my shoe reveals something sticky and black dangling from the heel. Well that's not too bad. I pull my boomerang out of its sheath and scrape whatever in the spirits name it was onto the ground.

"I've stepped in much worse."

After that, I decide to stay on the wall for a few more minutes. The boomerang is already returned to its sheath and I can feel it digging into my back as I lean against the stone. It is concealed by an Earth Kingdom styled jacket that is doing its best to keep me warm. Been a heck of a winter so far. Especially in a city that is as rundown and underdeveloped as this one. Or maybe over developed and then stuffed with far too many people to sustain itself? Either way, the infrastructure of this place has been neglected for a long time now. I suppose no one really cares to fix it at this point. I certainly don't blame them.

A headache has been pounding away at my skull all morning. Probably a result of the heavy amount of alcohol consumption from last night. Some tea would really do wonders for me right now. Last night I had read up while stone cold drunk that jasmine tea could help eliminate the side effects of hangovers.

"Yeah... that would be awesome."

I'm not sure if it is pure luck or divine intervention, but my eyes come to rest on a tea shop just across the street from me. Its wooden structure looks like it is beginning to decay and there is a surprising amount of trash piled up around the base of it compared to the rest of the street.

"Now that's more like it," I say to myself, probably much louder than I should have.

I push off the wall and stumble over the heaps of junk strewn everywhere. A slight wind blows about, causing some of it to stir about in circles like mini trash tornados. My hair brushes lightly against the side of my face giving me the realization that I had forgotten to tie it up in its traditional wolf tail.

It can wait. Let me get my tea first.

The scene inside the tea shop isn't much different than what is going on outside. At least as far as the general atmosphere is concerned. People are sitting at the various tables randomly placed around the dining area. Each person has a numb expression chiseled onto their face along with seemingly vacant eyes. Others are waiting in line for their own morning headache remedy. There is also a man sitting on a stool over in the corner reading the news reports out loud to the rest of us. I take my place in line and watch as he reaches for a scroll off a nearby table and unrolls it. After a slight hesitation, he clears his throat and reads.

"Today marks the one thousandth day of the Siege of Omashu. The city, which has shown to have a seemingly unlimited number of resources, is now beginning to show signs of draining supplies. Many Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation soldiers have been seen throwing their bodies over the side of the kilometer-high cliff that the city rests on. One can only speculate what has been going up there since reports stopped coming back a couple of years ago."

Nobody in the tea shop seems to be paying a lick of attention to the man. They all just keep drinking their tea and staring off into space. Who could blame them? Definitely not me. I roll my eyes and take another step forward as the line inches closer to the counter. The man in the corner sets the news scroll down rather slowly and reaches for the next one.

"The Si Wong dessert communities demand an end to the Northern Water Tribe's military occupation of its temples. A recent riot in one of the small-town centers left a number of casualties on both sides of the conflict. The unrest has yet to be contained."

That was a slightly interesting story to me given my heritage but of course no one else seems to give a damn. The line moves forward a bit more as I read the small menu above the counter. After deciding on a sufficient beverage, I reach into my coin pouch and began rummaging through it. The man's voice sounds again.

"The Ba Sing Se's Homeland Security Bill has been officially ratified. After ten years, the cities borders will remain closed. The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue."

At this one, everyone looks up from there drinks, their interests suddenly peaked. It grabs my attention as well. Of course, everyone knew that the city leaders would be uncontested when voting this bill into law. The city had basically been deporting undesirables for ten years already ever since the whole world went to shit. But now, it is official.

I finally reach the counter and order my tea. The man working the shop barley even acknowledges my existence as he pours the beverage into a cup and hands it to me. I pay him the fee and make my way to a seat. That was when the man reached for the next news scroll.

You know on second thought, I think I would rather just leave. I'm running late for work anyway.

I turn and made my way to the door. Unfortunately, he reads the next bit of news before I even made it halfway to the exit.

"This just in, the body of the last known water bender Katara has been discovered in a trench near the remains of what used to be the town of Gaoling. The proper authorities are still investigating the incident."

I stop in my tracks. My heart feels as if it has just stabbed with a razor blade. The entire tea shop suddenly comes to halt and all eyes turned to face the man. He just sat there in complete shock. It was now dead silent.

"No…"

For an instant, the entire world vanishes into a sea of denial but I quickly brush it aside. My sister Katara… she's dead? My thoughts drift back to the last time I had seen her ten years ago when the walls of Ba Sing Se were sealed off and she was caught on the wrong side. I remember Toph had gone missing that day as well. And Aang…

I do my best to fight back the tears that were swelling up in my eyes but one makes it through. My coat sleeve makes quick work of it. Katara was always talking about hope. She always had this naive optimism for a better future and it was something that I had secretly admired abut her. But on that day, as tragedy seemed to befall this entire world of ours, I could see it had vanished from even her eyes.

"Dammit!" I yell as I throw my cup onto the ground, the pieces flying in ten different directions.

Rather than wait for everyone's reaction, I turn and leave the tea shop. The putrid scent of the outside world once again invades my nose and another round of tears forms in my eyes, but this time I don't even bother wiping them away. Instead, I reach into my coat's inside pocket and pulled out a small bottle of sake and began walking down the street again. My fingers are trembling, making it difficult to unscrew the lid but I manage to get it off. What happened next though was just the icing on the cake.

The sound of an explosion tears into my ears and the entire earth beneath me shakes, literally tossing me off my feet. I instinctively wrap my hands over my head before falling to the ground and into a mountain of trash. In doing so, I lose my grip on the bottle. At first, I can hear people screaming and the rattle of debris falling all around me but that is quickly replaced by an intense ringing in my ears that drowns out everything else. I can feel an intense heat from what I assume is a large fire radiating onto my backside. Against my better judgment, I decide to roll over and see its source. My eyes are immediately assaulted with a massive flame that is pouring out of the tea shop I had been in mere seconds ago. A man jumps from the shop completely engulfed in fire and at least a dozen other people have been hurled onto the street. Many more are scampering about in terror. I can't hear any of them.

I make an attempt to stand but my balance is still reeling from being chucked nearly three feet in the air. My insides feel as though they had been put through a blender thanks to the shockwave of the blast. A second attempt to stand proves successful and I manage to stagger over to a now abandoned venders stall. My headache is much worse now. I glance to back to the ground to see my shattered bottle of sake, its former liquid contents forming a puddle around the debris of glass.

"Dammit to the Spirits!"


(2018) Well, here is the all new fresh coat of paint for a story that should have been completed about 7 years ago. I hope you enjoyed! I'm leaving behind my old author's note below.

AN: The is the first thing I have posted since 2008. So I guess this story is two years in the making? It's good to be back.

Sokka may seem out of character now but the situation has really drained most of the life out of him. No worries though. I promise his goofy nature hasn't been totally lost. Also I know the story may be a bit confusing now but it will get explained in the coming chapters. This chapter was just intended to set the tone.