Hello and welcome to….this. Enjoy!

Ghazan got slowly to his feet, breathing heavy. Those attacks had rocked him. These were some very talented young men he was facing.

He felt a pang in his heart. If the Firebender was here, then that must mean Ming-Hua had lost. Probably dead too.

Now she was gone. He had never told her how he really felt. He would never be able to now. All the wasted years…

He laughed darkly in his own head. That time had been wasted anyway, with both of them having been imprisoned for over a decade. Not the best way to keep your love life alive. Yet, somehow, even after all of that time, seeing her again had been almost magical.

But now these boys had taken that away from him. His Ming-Hua. Well no, never his. But he had as much right as anyone to her.

He wished he could make them pay for it. He really did. But he knew he was outmatched. The Earthbender kid had somehow become a Lavabender like himself, two of a kind. And the Firebender was just as skilled, if not more, than his brother. Together they could definitely beat Ghazan. He wasn't quite the bender he had been before he had been imprisoned. Then he was terrifying. Now he was just good.

What a shame, all of this. Maybe Zaheer at least would get what he wanted. The poor guy deserved it, after everything he had done to get this far.

"Give up Ghazan, you can't win!" Bolin shouted at him.

"I'm never going back to prison." He told the young benders. "If I'm going down today, you're coming with me!" he accentuated the words with a powerful punch to the ground. Shockwaves rippled around the cavern, and rocks that been centuries dormant came alive again. They shook and broke, collapsing in on themselves. Ghazan decided to speed up the process, turning as much as he could around him into lava. With a roar he unleashed as much as he could around him, raining chaos. Maybe they would die with him. Maybe he didn't have to die alone.

But fate had other plans, just like it always did with Ghazan. The boys were pretty smart, didn't try to run. They would never have made it away in time if they did. The Earthbender moved the ground beneath him and his brother, and they slid away to relative safety. Soon they were out of reach of Ghazan's death trap. They would live, he wouldn't. Like everything else in his life, it was going awry, and he would lose.

"Fuck you too, life." He muttered as a mountain came crashing down on him. The last glimpse of the two brothers disappeared, leaving him alone. So alone.

But seeing them flee gave him an idea. Why did he have to die here? He could escape too. He had already broken out of one prison, why not the one called fate, too? He was an Earthbender after all, and he was standing on earth. All he had to do was sink. Easy enough for him.

The ground below him gave away with just the slightest twitch of his hand and he sunk through the earth as the mountain crumbled above him, finally escaping fate's cruel plans. For the first time in his life he felt truly free. The two brothers would believe he was dead, and who would doubt them? Ghazan could truly disappear now. Be free. Was this really possible?

Part of him wanted to go back and help Zaheer end the reign of the Avatar. It was what they had always worked for, after all. Almost his entire life had gone towards this one goal. It had been his life, and it had ruined his life. Back when they were young, he had believed in the Red Lotus. He, along with the rest of them, had been devoted in their cause. To bring balance back to the world by ending the tyranny of Raava. To free everyone from themselves, by making it clear to them that their only limitations were within their own mind. By the teachings of Zaheer and Xai Bau before him, any government or group that tried to exercise control over a person was, by definition, wrong and intolerable. Thus anarchy was the only true way.

And Ghazan believed in that. He really did. He knew things such as governments and even other individuals only had as much power over you as you allowed them. And it was his duty to help Zaheer make this truth clear to everyone. He had been prepared to give his life to the Red Lotus, and even die as a martyr for it if the occasion called.

But now….

He would be believed dead. No one would expect him anywhere because they didn't expect him to still have a pulse. Ghazan had his chance to be free of everything. He could go find some secluded part of the world and live by his own terms, in his own private paradise. He could live happy for the rest of his life instead of fighting for people who were against him anyway. He knew the noble thing to do here would be to go back and be Zaheer's ace in the hole, and finish the Avatar and bring balance back to the world. But he hadn't been noble for a long time.

"Fuck this." He said as he broke through the surface, in an empty barren field nearby the mountain he had almost died in. "I'm going to live my way. I'm done sacrificing for people who don't want it." He climbed out of the hole and started walking away from the whole Avatar business.

"Sorry to leave you alone in this." He muttered to Zaheer, far away. "But I've been looking for my freedom for a long time and I'm not letting anything get in the way of it. Not even you, old friend. I wish you the best of luck on your mission, Zaheer."

The next day he found himself at a small village, an Earth Kingdom settlement surrounded by farms. At the local bar, he heard some of the farmers talking about the state of the Earth Kingdom with excited but apprehensive tones.

"They say she was murdered, that bitch of a Queen." One said. "By an Airbender, no less."

One of his compatriots scoffed. "An Airbender? Those guys are peaceful pushovers. I don't believe for a second they would have killed anyone. Heck, even old Avatar Aang spared the Fire Lord way back in the Hundred Year War. Those people don't have a mean bone among all of them."

"Well I heard it from Cho. He came from Ba Sing Se the other day. You don't believe me, then take it up with him. But he said that the whole capital was in riot. He looked pretty spooked, so I don't think he was messing with me."

Ghazan smiled behind his mug as he listened to their conversation. If only they knew that their entire world would be flipped on its head soon.

He continued to make his way through the Earth Kingdom, trying to reach a coast city so he could leave. He was wrestling with where he wanted to go. He could find somewhere to hide in many places throughout the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation without drawing attention, although the Water Tribes seemed unlikely to work out. But he wanted to see if he could find somewhere… impartial. Unaligned with any particular nation. Republic City fit that bill, of course, but Ghazan knew it would be way too easy to recognize him there. The Avatar, if she was alive, and her friends would find him within a week.

There was one place that did catch his eye. An island, independent of the Nations, south of the Earth Kingdom. Kyoshi, it was called, named after the Avatar who formed it. And it might just be his future home.

"Kyoshi." He mused. "That could work." He could finally be free. Nobody would ever find him. And he was never going back.

So what did you think of this? Let me know with a review, and if you really liked it please fave and follow. This is meant as a one shot, and I don't plan on continuing it, but there is room to add on to this, so if anyone wants more I might make another chapter or two. This story does happen to cover some similar ground as another story of mine, Revenge of the Red Lotus. I'm not sure if I want them to be connected or not, but it is a possibility. That story has been on hold for a while, but I am planning on continuing it, I've just been busy. Anyway, thanks for reading!