A/N: Not quite sure why I'm even bothering to post this one. I never get reviews from people in this fandom. Lots of hits, just no reviews. Not very happy with Zuko's post...
It all started, one hundred years ago, with a boy. A boy like no other. A boy that was destined to save the world. But, even though this was his destiney, he was scorend by the other children his age. Twelve years old and he was hated for something that he had no control over, for something that he didn't want.
So he started to dream.
He dreamed of a friend. A friend that would never leave him, no matter what the other kids said and no matter what he was supposed to do. It would be a boy the same age as he was, one that was smart and cool and funny all at once. He'd be able to fight even though he wouldn't like to. And then nothing that the others said would matter because he would know he was loved anyways.
But then the whispers grew to murmurs grew to shouts and that boy no older than twelve was forced to flee. To flee the only home he had ever known, with nothing but a flying bison at his side.
And his shattered dream would start a chain-reaction, one that would put a stop to candy-coated dreams everywhere.
-x-x-
One hundred years later, and a young girl was daring to dream. Like the first boy, the Last Avatar, her dream was of another person. The difference was that she didn't want to be loved, she didn't want to be accepted, she wanted to know that she wasn't alone.
The last water-bender of the Southern Water Tribe, they told her, and not just that but the only female in either Tribe that could bend. Alone in the world even though she had family. Forced to practice in secret for fear that she would be discovered by someone that shouldn't know.
Eventually, she left her home as well. With her brother and the newly found Avatar Aang at her side, she looked for someone that would teach her without pausing because she was a woman. And maybe, she told herself every morning, maybe she would even find another like her. Someone that did what they said was impossible. Someone else forced to live between the lines.
But soon a war was upon them and there was no more time for such frivolties as dreams, especially not for one that would never be reached.
-x-x-
The war has been going on for a long time when they meet the second girl, the tough warrior girl with no sight and no vision of how the world should be. Without a second thought, she accepts the bender-Katara and the Avatar Aang for what they are and she moves on. Their problems are their own, after all, and it doesn't bother her if they aren't what society views as being normal. After all, niether is she.
Her dream was different from theirs. She didn't seek approval and she didn't seek someone like herself; there was no one that would fit either bill, as far as she was concerned. No. She wanted only to become as strong as every other person out there, not hindered by her lack of sight, and for people to know that she was.
To be recognized by her abilities at Earth-bending, not by the hazy color of her eyes. To be viewed as a warrior, not viewed as disabled. To be feared, not coddled. That was what she wanted. That was her dream.
Yet time and time again, it was shattered by something that she couldn't, and would never, see.
-x-x-
Near the end of the war, a second boy joined the group of four. He was older than all but the brother of the water-bender girl and, as such, had seen horrors most of the others hadn't. They didn't trust him for it, not at first, but that was fine with him. His trust wasn't what he wanted. It wasn't what he fought for.
He fought for the honor that had been stripped of him four years ago, right before he was cast out of his nation and into the wild on a chase no one thought he would win. And, above that, he fought for regaining the love of his father; something else that had been taken from him when he was cast away.
To know that he was loved by more than just an uncle. That he was worthy of the title 'Son of the Firelord'. That, maybe, his father would realize that the way he had been ruling his kingdom was wrong and that it was family and not power that really mattered.
But all too soon, he learned that would never happen and the last of his dreams were taken from him.
-x-x-
And there is one other in the group that had a dream. One that still has a dream. He is the brother of Bender Katara, friend of Avatar Aang, supporter of Warrior Toph, and admirer of Prince Zuko. There from the very beginning of the war and through it all, even though he had no reason to be.
He was not thought of very much, as he was not a bender like the others of the group. In the start, he wasn't even a warrior. Just a boy thrown into Man's World six years too soon. But that worked for the best because it meant his enemies were never expecting him when he slunk up behind them and sent them into the darkness.
Nor where the expecting the wrath they would bring about when they attacked one of the others; one of his family, one of his charges. When he thought that nothing else would work, when all else had already failed, he let loose the power he really was and took down all in his path. And, the next day, when Avatar Aang and Bender Katara and Warrior Toph and Prince Zuko had wakened, he would keep to himself the new blood stains on his clothing and the aching wounds on his skin.
Because his dream wasn't one that would ever be broken as long as they were alive, which meant that so long as he was alive he would be dreaming; dreaming of protecting fragile hearts and candy-coated dreams and everything else that meant something to those he held dear.