Chapter One: Smoke and Ashes
Ozai was dead.
It was over quickly. A bolt of lightning in the Avatar State was all it took. And now, Aang kneeled in front of the body with a blank, unfocused stare.
It was Avatar Yangchen who had convinced him in the end.
With a few words of truth and a glimpse into the past, she had destroyed what remained of his people. Though they were already long gone, in Aang's mind it was now as if they had never truly existed. He felt foolish now, to have never made the connection when he'd found Gyatso and the other Monks surrounded by the bones of fallen Fire Nation soldiers. He tried to take comfort in the fact that he had adhered to the monks doctrine in the end, even if it was not the half-truth fed to him when he was still a boy. He tried. He failed.
The Lion Turtle had awakened something ancient in his spirit, but he had been unable to summon it when the time came.
He couldn't calm the storm that raged in his mind or soothe the pain in his heart. He stood, doused the flames from the surrounding area, and forced himself to look at the corpse.
He'd seen the dead before. Before the older monks scattered the fallen to the birds, they let the young see them one last time and say their goodbyes. His elderly brothers always looked so peaceful in death, as if they were merely asleep instead of forever free from the world.
Ozai's face was frozen in fear, his eyes half-closed, staring but no longer seeing.
Aang swayed, tears blurring his vision as he shakingly covered the body in earth to shield it from the heat of the unforgiving sun. He wanted so badly to run away, to be anywhere but there, but he willed himself not to run.
He would never run again
"I'm sorry." He whispered to the pile of earth, after eons had passed and his face was wet with tears. When the lump in his throat allowed him to speak above a crack, he continued, "M-maybe If I hadn't run away all of those years ago, I could have ended the war earlier and you would have never grown up to be so evil." Aang wiped his eyes with an arm and let out a shaky sigh.
He dried his eyes, and swallowed his pain as best as he could. He had to pull himself together, people were depending on him. There would be time to grieve for what he had lost later on.
He didn't notice when Sokka, Toph, and Suki arrived. They called out to him, but their voices were distant, as if they were all underwater. He snapped back to reality with a jolt when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Sokka, he was looking at Aang with a worried expression, the girls
mirroring his expression behind him. They had all noticed the mound
"Is that…?" Sokka gestured to the dirt over the boy's shoulder with his chin.
"Yeah." Aang lowered his gaze. Momo landed on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek against his master's neck.
Toph cleared the earth, and all but Aang took a step back when what lie underneath was revealed. Toph shuddered and covered her nose with a hand. Sokka and Suki exchanged a glance and turned to look at Aang with uneasy sympathy. Seeing the ends of friends, family and enemies had hardened the teenagers somewhat to the horrors of war, but their hearts still ached for him.
There was a few seconds of silence as the Avatar's friends stood awkwardly around the body, not sure what to do with themselves, glad that their struggles were over but reluctant to celebrate for the sake of their friend.
Finally, Sokka said, "We can take him and come back for you if you-"
"No." Aang's gaze was stony as he looked at them, his eyes clouded with something they could not name, his voice crisp and clear. "Whatever you do with him, I'm going to help. Let's go."
The four friends traveled in silence. Behind them, in another world, parallel to their own, the spirit of Roku watched them go, face solemn and heavy with regret. He bowed his head, fading into the ether as Sozin's comet departed from the sky above for another century.
Author's note: Someone please help these kids.