This is the oneshot no one requested, but I couldn't not write. It's also kind of awful and a bit of a downer. Sorry about that. But, let's face it – while the end of the Gundam story is about a triumph of human will and peace, the start is...distinctly not that.

This is how it all began, how the tragic events of the prologue in "Tears of Revelry" came to pass.

If it makes you feel all kinds of sad, go read something more cheerful, okay? Next week's will be better.

Enjoy!

Oneshot 1 - Before the Dawn

"This has gone too far!" one of the Five shouted, running at his best speed. "Why are they attacking the Avatar when we are so close to victory?"

"It doesn't matter why," answered a second, his long cloak flapping in the air. "The man who gave that ill-considered order is already dead. It is merely a question of what happens now."

"I can't believe we have to save the Avatar!" a third groused ruefully. "Assuming he doesn't save himself. But I believe the odds are against him without our intervention."

"It might be better if we didn't intervene," pointed out the fourth as he huffed along beside them. "If he dies, we will have many years to further our goals before he could again interfere."

"You make a good point," the fifth said, and they all began to slow down. "This Avatar is only vaguely sympathetic to our cause. The next will be a firebender, and the Fire Nation is notorious for their separatist views. The Avatar would grow up inundated in a society that believes as we do."

"Assuming he's born in the Fire Nation," the first pointed out.

"If he's not, we simply rearrange things and move him," the second said airily. "To relocate a defenseless child to the circumstances of our preference is no difficulty."

"Then let us wait," said the third. "The death of the Avatar should settle matters for a time, giving the nations a moment to strike, and we can, of course, ensure they use it."

"The people will be afraid. The nations are always at their strongest when the Avatar is a child. In twenty years or so, the nations will be stronger and the Avatar will have spent a lifetime learning of the value of his native element as it is. We may even be able to ensure the masters who teach him to command the other elements are separatists as well," the fourth mused.

"Agreed," said the fifth. "Any further objections?"

There were none, so the Five proceeded more slowly. They still wished to witness the outcome, after all, for either way, they would have what they wanted.

That decision would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

-==OOO==-

"Enough!" roared Avatar Yuy, throwing off his attackers. His eyes streamed tears freely as he glanced across the battlefield and saw so many unmoving friends and allies, their broken bodies no longer repeating a heartbeat to him through the earth.

Avatar Yuy closed his eyes and drew upon the Avatar State. "This ends now!"

As he rose into the sky, chunks of earth rising with him, a shadow moved in the darkness.

Quinze shifted to watch his best friend, his life-long companion, draw himself into this highest cosmic power. Quinze could not yet speak around the damage to his body, but already his hands were moving over his own torso, the bloodied water steadily repairing the great gash to his chest that had probably punctured a lung. It took all his concentration to pull the broken rib back into place and begin rebuilding the muscles around it.

He never saw the assassin until the water on his hands jumped at the sudden charge in the air. Quinze looked up in time to see a bolt of lightning, almost purple with power, strike the rising Avatar down.

"NO!"

Quinze watched Yuy fall and his heart frizzled and died beneath his healing hands. He didn't even realize anymore he was trying to heal his body not with water, but with the liberally spilled blood.

"Maybe they're right," Yuy sighed.

"You can't believe that," Quinze argued. "We are one people, one world. All elements are connected. You know that."

"Yes, I do. But not everybody is ready for that truth," Yuy said, exhaustedly. "Perhaps there is some sense to allowing the nations to keep their order a little longer, until I have had more time to carry this lesson to the people. Then, perhaps, this could be done more easily."

"The people trust you," Quinze put an arm around his shoulders. "They are waiting for your wisdom to help define the path forward. Those who wish to separate and those who wish to remain are equally concerned and frightened. Neither side is good or evil. They are both simply lost. You are the one who must lead them."

"Yes, I know," Yuy smiled at him. "You believe I can navigate between both boulders to the correct path?"

"I believe in no one else so well," Quinze answered honestly.

"Then I will believe in myself," Yuy said. "And as long as this world ends in peace for all, I will be content that you will help me along my own journey."

The memory from earlier that very evening seemed to pierce Quinze's pain-filled haze. He pushed himself up, heedless of the many black-clad attackers still surrounding him as though they were no more than statues. Almost numb, he moved to Yuy's side, dropping to his knees in grass liberally wetted with the blood of the battle.

"Yuy?" his voice quavered. "Yuy? My friend?"

Shaking, he turned over the still body. The chest had been blackened and burned so deep Quinze could actually see the charred entrails and heart of his closest companion.

"Dead in the Avatar State!" cheered one reckless member of the ambush party breaking the eerie silence. "The Avatar is gone forever!"

"Forever," Quinze muttered numbly.

At the edge of the clearing, five men stood, utterly shocked. They watched as their own Order celebrated, dancing and hooting wildly as they surrounded the single survivor who clutched the broken body in a deathly-still embrace. They watched the sun's very first rays strike the gruesome scene, and as the long shadows fled, so too did their own agents. Soon the clearing was nothing but bodies and one half-alive witness.

"What…what do we do now?" one of the Five finally managed.

Two were still shocked to silence, but another found his voice. "We must make this right. Dividing the world to protect the peace is more important now than ever, but we…we did this."

"There must be a way to recall the Avatar," said the fifth stubbornly. "There must. And we will find it."

"Let us first ensure the Avatar is truly destroyed," the first managed. "But if he is, then we must act with whatever powers we can command to fill the void of his absence. We must ensure the right forces come to power, that we control the reactions of the nations and the people. We must spread our influence throughout the world to bring it to order."

"The Order doesn't have that kind of power," one of the shocked Five said at last. "We are too small, too disjointed, too…" he trailed off and gestured at the ruin before him.

"We do not, but the Order of the White Lotus does," another said with a sharp breath. "They do not know our identities yet. We need only use this to give ourselves entry."

"It could work," the third said slowly. "With both Orders under our command, we could take any actions we wished, move the world from below rather than above."

"But we also must find a way to undo what we have done," the fourth argued. "We cannot leave this as it is."

"Look," the fifth pointed.

Across the field, the lone survivor had finally risen. The Five believed he was weeping until he threw his head back and cackled loudly to the sky. His body was streaked with blood and mud and gore. As they watched, he began bending. The mud and the sopping pools of ruined bodies came at his call. Still laughing derangedly, he fashioned a horrible bier upon which to lie the blackened corpse of Avatar Yuy.

"We have to do something," the first of the Five said. "We can't leave him like this."

"Looks like a waterbender," commented the second. "I've heard that self-healing is very dangerous. And unless I was imagining things, I think he was healing wounds with blood, too."

"He's dangerous and powerful," the third said firmly. "We must deal with him."

"Then I know just the way," said the fourth. Striding out over the dusty-dry ground, he tried not to look too closely at where the bodies and mud and blood had been pooled in one hideous, macabre mess.

The waterbender's head snapped up, his eyes definitely showing signs of certain madness.

"Peace," the member of the Five said, hands up. "I and my companions are of the Order. And this," he gestured, "that has been done cannot be allowed to go unpunished. Will you help us?"

"His last wish was to unite the peoples of this world," Quinze choked around his tongue that was still trying to laugh. "All the peoples, not one side or another. I…I want that."

But his eyes suddenly glowed with a dark light. "I want them all to know his fear and pain!"

"We can work with that," the representative of the Five said. "For now, let's get you to a proper healer. Then we can begin planning for the future."

They led Quinze away, and soon they had a healer working to correct some of the damage, both that done to him and that he had inflicted on himself. But even as they spoke to him, drew him closer and closer into their cause, there was a part of him that never listened.

There was a part of Quinze that had died while knee-deep in the bodies and blood of friends and allies and, most importantly, his Avatar. And what grew to replace that which had died would never truly be free of the moment that had birthed it. Quinze smiled and grew calm and stoic under the urging of the Five, and his sharp mind moved to the forefront and began to function for him.

But his soul was bathed and born in the blood of the ultimate loss, a loss he still intended to bring to the world no matter the time or the cost. He would make every living man, woman, and child feel his suffering. He would avenge Yuy and his dreams of peace.

Quinze managed to make himself smile at the right moment. "I would be honored," he answered whatever had been said.

"Then welcome to the Order of the Black Lotus, Grand Master Quinze."