Title: ozymandias
Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA, naturally.
Pairing: None.
Summary: No peace for the wicked, and their works shall not endure
AN: Thanks for reading.
This was written with almost no knowledge of what happens next in the series. I have neither read the materials describing what happened after the end of the war nor have I watched Legend of Korra. As such, there will probably be some discrepancies between this piece and canon happenings.
Fire Lord Sozin leaves Avatar Roku to die from smoke in his eyes and tightness in his throat and no air in his lungs.
Then he waits twelve years before he unleashes his next move. He is nothing if not a cunning tactician.
When the long-awaited comet plunges across the sky, Sozin leads his army against the peaceful Air Nomads. They are unsuspecting, and they are a gentle folk, and so they fall like leaves before sharp blades and roaring fire. To his everlasting regret no one can tell Sozin where the child Aang is. Sozin is disappointed; having done away with one Avatar, he naturally cannot allow the reigning Avatar to live.
And so Sozin waits, again. While he waits he snatches land from under the Earth King's bulbous nose, and the Fire Nation colonies grow in size with every passing raid, with every passing year.
Then he dies. The world doesn't go up in smoke – yet.
:::
Azulon raises the great Gates and names them after himself.
There is slaughter and conquest aplenty during his reign. Ba Sing Se itself, so long coveted by his father, teeters on the edge.
The blue-eyed people of the sea too, face his wrath; he sends the masked soldiers to the forsaken tundra in the south, and there the soldiers turn the perennial snow red with the blood of countless waterbenders. Those they live alive, they force into slavery.
It will be years before anyone discovers that there is still a last waterbender, a young girl with brown eyes and dimples in her cheeks, who yet lives.
But blood spilled is still blood spilled.
:::
Ozai, the Phoenix King, rises from the ashes. The taste of small defeats lingers in his mouth, and he cannot accept it. And so he gathers his army for the last stand – he will stand tall and reign over the world. He will be the king of kings, lord over the entire land, and his name will be known in all corners of the earth.
Men die. Families are destroyed. Azula retreats into herself. Zuko runs away to join the Avatar's crew –
And the Hundred Year War comes to a standstill.
:::
When Ozai dies, he is cremated without pomp and pageantry. There is no mourning procession; not even his mad daughter sheds a tear. No royal decree is issued to instruct the populace to wear white for three days.
When Ozai dies, Zuko the new Fire Lord demolishes the golden Gates of Azulon. The gold he melts and sends to the bureau in charge of the poorhouses. Then Zuko sends his heralds across the land, proclaiming messages of reconciliation, and reaffirms his commitment to peace to the various diplomats who reside in the capital.
When Ozai dies, Zuko sends for Sokka and Aang to discuss turning the colonies into a new city, where all can live in harmony. This is the end of Fire Nation hegemony, he says, and crumples up a military map. We will give up the colonies.
:::
The era of the tyrants is over, and their works shall not endure.