Closer to Balance
by Nevermore's Shadow
Author's Note: Written for Pro-Bending Tournament Round 6
Team: Laogai Lion Vultures
Episode Prompt: Sozin's Comet Part 4
Prompts -
Easy: "There are so many... I don't know what to choose."
Medium: Aang(Character)
Hard: Ashes of Eden by Breaking Benjamin
Element: Water
Word Count: 839
It's amazing what goes through your head in just a fraction of a second.
"Firelord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now you shall pay the ultimate price!"
I heard the voice – my own mingled with so many others that had come before me. Here he was, the most powerful man in all of the world, completely at my mercy. This was the man whose actions had deprived Katara, Sokka, and Zuko of a mother – the last being the most egregious of all, in a way, as that woman had been his own wife. A part of me wanted him to suffer. I had so many tools at my disposal to do so… which could I choose? I could pull the air from his lungs, drown him with water, crush him with rocks. It would be most poetic, of course, to burn him to death with his own precious fire.
All of these thoughts ran through my head, constantly circling around and around until they made me dizzy. Instants had gone by, not moments, not seconds, parts of heartbeats, fractions of breaths. This man's father was the reason I was the last of my kind. His way of thinking destroyed my people utterly and completely. A darkness fell across my mind, and I felt the air growing thin. There was a light within me that I could feel, tugging me towards its will. Voices haunted me, voices of those left dead in this monster's wake, calling to me, but I couldn't hear them anymore. That light continued to grow within me, and I let each element come to rest. All the rage, all of the fury subsided until there was nothing left but me. Avatar Aang – I was the one who would decide how this would end. Just as the Firelord had begun his reign with terror and bloodshed, I would end it with peace. I released each element in turn, letting them crash around his head as I drew in deep, heavy breaths, the life slowly coming back to me.
My mind reached back, remembering everything that I had learned on my journey, ever since emerging from the enormous block of ice, thanks to two curious young members of the Water Tribe. I thought of how Zuko's uncle had used patience and kindness to mold the young prince into the friend I had only recently come to know. Iroh had every right to be angry at the world and seek its destruction, having lost his son in combat, but instead he focused on peace and balance. I remembered Katara, who had been given a chance to have a dark vengeance for her mother, but decided not to follow through, leaving the man to live out his existence with the knowledge of what he had done. Ozai deserved to be punished for his crimes, for disrupting the balance of the world, but was it up to me to decide how that punishment should be dealt with? No. It was my job to bring him down, but not to bring him to justice. The sentencing belonged to more people than just myself.
"No, I'm not going to end it like this," I finally said, resigning myself to this path. I would not kill Ozai, no matter how much I, or many others, felt he might deserve it.
"Even with all of the power in the world, you are still weak," I heard him growl behind me. Through the earth, I felt his movements, his attempt to attack me from behind, and I bound him with earth with barely a thought. I had him at my mercy once again. There was fear, pleading in his eyes when he realize that he was done for. It was almost as though he thought I would change my mind now that I saw what a coward he was, willing to strike me when I was not facing him. Instead, I thought back to the Lion Turtle, bending the energy within, and I focused on that, placing one hand on Ozai's forehead, the other on his heart. I could feel the twisting, turning currents of energy within him, threatening to overtake me as I tried to bend them. They surged into my body, threatening to break me, but I would not be bent. I am the Avatar, and it is my duty to bend the elements, even energy, in such a way as to maintain balance. I focused, felt the energy surge from deep within me and push back to Ozai, cleansing him, rearranging his energy until he was no longer the greatest firebender in the world, no longer the most powerful man on the planet. Instead, before me, I saw what he truly was: a weak, pathetic man who only hungered to further himself at the cost of others. Just a matter of moments, and all of that went through my mind, and in that same time, the balance of all things shifted much closer to center.