For the most part, the world was good at healing itself. Rigid, yet adaptable, bending and cracking with each new pressure, each new scar upon it's surface to grow into a landscape of beauty; if only you knew where to look. On the tallest volcano the panda lily grows, in the deepest ocean a serpent croons to her young, and on the coldest plain a snowflake like no other falls. The world, the earth beneath their feet and the sky above their heads, was beautiful.
For the longest time the Avatar had been of the belief that the people who inherited this beautiful world were every bit as adaptable, as forgiving, as open to change. He knew there was evil, souls that tainted what they touch, but for the most part he was fueled by the hope that in each and every evil there was a light that, in time, could learn to break free. With each blow he took, every scar on his skin, he would stand taller, grin never fading, love never dying, striving to achieve his dreams. But, it would seem that not even this bright young soul could forever fight back the darkness that lay even in his heart.
The airbender fell to the broken, dusty ground at his feet, the glow in his eyes fading as his hand reached out ahead of him, grasping only onto thin air.
"You failed," came the voice, just another scar on the earth.
"No ..." the Avatar, still not yet old enough to face the horrors before him. "Please ... I can stop this ... I can save them."
Around the two lone figures in this desolate landscape a cloud of deep red swirled, it's touch disintegrating the trees it caressed, leaving nothing but a parting breath as it went. The sky swirled and thundered like a thrashing river, each wave of lightening destroying more of the once familiar landscape.
"It's too late," the voice came again, almost with pity. "The time when the Avatar could act has passed, and the result is this."
"Please," the young man sobbed, his face a picture of pain. "This can't ..." His fists clenched, and his head rose to face the monstrosity before him. "This can't be happening."
"But it is." The voice, almost seductive in it's vileness, rose. Rows of legs clicked along the ground, and the creature raised it's swollen front from the ground. Red eyes narrowed, and those long thin lips widened into a smile, revealing hundreds of sharp teeth. "Now you realise what I must take from you."
The young man's emotions were open for the world to see, if only it remained to witness them. The tears streamed down his face, leaving trails down blood soaked skin and though, for one moment, it seemed as though he would challenge the creature before him, the light in his eyes died. His head lowered, his body still.
"Take it," he said, his voice scarcely above a whisper. "I don't want to see this any more."
"I had hoped that you, of all the Avatar's that I have known, would have been stronger," the beast shook his cruel face and sighed. "But those flames that burn twice a bright can only burn half as long." It proceeded to twist it's body around the young Avatar, until they were once more eye to eye.
"At last, I will have the Avatar's face."