Prologue To Rule The World

"We can learn a great lesson from the Hundred Year War." A thin, aged man said, walking down a large, bright airy corridor with windows that overlooked the city.

"Father?" The boy at his side asked, curious.

The older man brushed a speck of dirt from his green robes. "We are a powerful Nation. And think of the sharing of technology and ideas throughout what was once the Fire Nation empire. All nations benefited."

"From war, Father?"

"Of course not." The man stopped, and looked out, watching the city below. "From the result of war, from one man attempting to make a grand vision reality." He turned to his son. "Of course, we cannot do anything until Avatar Aang finally passes."

"He is old, Father." The younger man said, hiding his doubts about what his father was saying.

"That he is. Many say he has gone feeble and soft from the continued deaths of his friends." The older man smiled cruelly. "It has been almost sixty years since he returned. Perhaps we should challenge him. Crush the Avatar, crush the world."

Startled, the boy blurted. "Father, he is the last Avatar! Once he dies, the world will have lost a great hero…"

The boy found himself on the floor, his lip bleeding from the blow his father had delivered.

"No son of mine will speak like that!" He snarled. "You are the Prince of the Earth Kingdom, and my heir!"

The boy bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Father." He apologized.


Life was calm after that. The young prince excelled in his studies, proving to be not only a master scholar, but an excellent tactician and Earthbender.

The time finally came when the boy, now nearly a man, stood at his father's side when the Avatar arrived to Ba Sing Se for a visit. He was touring the world once more, perhaps for the last time.

The Earth Kingdom was his final stop, in more ways than he knew.


Aang stepped down from the platform he was on, once again missing Appa, who had passed many years before. Though he was shriveled and small with age, merriment still flowed through his old eyes.

"King Yati!" He greeted, opening his arms to the Earth King.

"Avatar Aang." The King greeted genially. "Come, sit. You must be tired from your travels."

As he led Aang to a chair, he gestured, and guards drew their weapons, quickly slaying Aang's attendants, their bodies hitting the ground almost simultaneously.

Aang's withered face paled, and he bowed his head. "War again?" He whispered softly, then seemed to literally roll out of the way of Yati's attack, the loosened stone crushing against the chamber walls.

Aang hit the ground, and the floor ripped apart, a rumbling wave surging toward Yati, who calmly stepped his foot down, dispelling the quake.

Aang reached out, and the water in the pots lining the room, meager though it was, coalesced into a spike. He sent it darting toward the Earth King. The man raised his arms, and the floor lifted, blocking the splashing strike. Yati laughed cruelly, and split the earth, the water falling below Aang's reach.

Aang kicked out, and graceful arc of flame sliced through the air, also blocked by a wall of earth.

Now the Earth King struck back, pillars of earth slamming from the ground, causing Aang to dance back, off-guard.

Yati stomped the earth a mass of rock rising into the air, and pushed it toward Aang, who whipped his staff, a stiff wind forcing it aside.

Aang rose into the air, spinning, and the wind that tore from his body threw the entire court back.

As he landed, the young prince went pale. His father had landed against one of his pillars, and lay limp, blood spreading in a puddle around his body.

Aang froze, his gaze locking on the dead king. In all his years, he had never killed anyone, and the knowledge of what he had done made him cold, and dead inside. He didn't sense the prince's strike until too late, and his crumpled, broken body fell from the ceiling.

The prince turned to the guards, to the men that were now his. "Carry my father from here. And send out our army." He said coldly.

War had come again.