Updated 11/26/08
Hello, everyone. This is La Moirae, and welcome to my story. If you're like me (or Iroh) and like having a hot cup of tea on hand, feel free to grab some before you start.
Please note that when I began to write this story, the first season wasn't even finished, so there will be some inconsistencies with the history. Luckily, this story is AU, so hopefully it won't be too annoying. Just bear with me, m'kay?
Let the prologue/teaser commence!
PROLOGUE
Earth
Fire
Water
Air
Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.
With Avatar Roku out of the way, the Fire Nation pursued their goal of global domination more fiercely than ever. Their first step was to try to conquer the strongest of all the other nations, the Earth Kingdom. While they managed to take majority of the country, they could not bring the capital city to its knees. Discouraged, but hardly willing to give up their dream, the Fire Nation began to ravage both the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads.
During this time, an Airbender in the Southern Air Temple named Aang grew up happily, completely oblivious to the horrors that were taking place in the other parts of his world. This carefree existence continued until he was twelve, when the highest order of monks in the temple informed him of his destiny: he was, in fact, the legendary Avatar, whose duty it was master all four elements in order to keep the peace in their world. Unable to handle all of the responsibility that was suddenly shifted onto his shoulders, he had considered running away. But he did not.
He was killed with the other Air Nomads in the Fire Nation's brutal attack on the temple.
Unaware that they had murdered the latest Avatar, the Fire Nation continued to fight the other nations. Without the Avatar to stop them, they had a steady stream of victories, and before long, they had most of the world under their control.
But as it had been doing for thousand of years, the Avatar cycle kept to its course, and a Waterbender became the new Avatar. Her name was Kairi, and in the eyes of those of her Tribe, it would be she who saved the world from the atrocity their sister nation had become. Her mastery over water was simply astonishing, it was said. With such proficiency, they could only imagine what she would be able to do with the other elements. Unfortunately, two days shy of her sixteenth birthday, the day she would be informed of her destiny, the Fire Nation stormed through her town, obliterating their entire village. When the few villagers that had managed to escape returned to their homes, they found her body lying among the smoldering ruin with all the others who had not been so fortunate.
Once again, the Fire Nation had inadvertently killed another Avatar. As the people of the other nations grew more and more hopeless, the Fire Nation grew more and more ruthless. Both the Water and Air Nations had completely submitted to Fire Nation rule, and the Earth Kingdom was barely hanging onto their freedom. But even they were beginning to lose faith in the possibility of salvation. It seemed as though the Avatar had disappeared forever, leaving them at the mercy of their brutal neighbor. The Fire Nation themselves believed that the threat of the Avatar was long in the past. Surely, they would be able to rid of the next one before he came to power, just as they apparently had the last two times.
Unfortunately, they did not fare nearly as well as they hoped.
Deep in one of the Earth Kingdom's forests, a young Earthbender named Akumu was raised. His parents, knowing of his true identity, resolved to keep him hidden from the world until he came of age, a job they did well. No other soul besides his parents even knew of his existence until he was sixteen. Once informed of his destiny, he began his travels to the other Nations in order to learn the other Bending arts, as every Avatar had before him. It took all of his cunning to outwit the Fire Nation troops, in whom he managed to arouse great suspicion, but after months of training, he finally became a full-fledged Avatar.
Needless to say, he wasted no time in putting his abilities to use. Raising an army of Earthbenders to aid him, he began to take his country back, city by city. Although the Fire Army fought hard to keep their hard-earned possessions, they proved to be no match for the Avatar and the Benders under his command. Once the majority of the country had been freed, the Avatar began to set his sights on the other Nations. Not much could be done about the Air Nation, as it was too late for it to be saved, but there was hope for the Water Tribes yet. Marching into the Northern Tribe, they managed to help the Waterbenders drive the Fire Nation out for good. For the first time in years, the people of the other nations felt that it was possible to end Fire Nation oppression once and for all.
But a release from the power of the Fire Nation did not come as soon as the other nations hoped. Despite the fact that their empire was greatly diminished, the Fire Nation was still in control of some parts of the world. This infuriated Akumu, who had thought that they would have surrendered by now. At this point in time, he had been fighting them for several long years, and yet he still had not achieved complete freedom for all the nations. It was then that he realized what he must do in order to obtain it: he would have to venture into the Fire Nation and defeat the Fire Lord.
The decision to do so was his most fatal mistake.
Almost as soon as he stepped onto Fire Nation soil, several Firebenders, the remnants of the Nation's once powerful Fire Army, viciously attacked him. Though he fended them off without much difficulty, the encounter was rather indicative of things to come. On every path his journey took him, there seemed to be Firebender willing to fight. Despite this, he reached the Fire Palace much faster than anitcipated, quickly overtaking all of the guards before finally confronting Fire Lord Ozai, the current Fire Lord, himself. Completely unfazed by the sudden appearance of the Avatar, the Fire Lord challenged him to an Agni Kai, to which Akumu begrudgingly obliged once Ozai told him refused to fight him in any other manner.
Once the Agni Kai started, it was obvious who the winner would be. Akumu blocked him at every turn, soundly defeating the Fire Lord after only a few minutes of combat. Enraged, but not showing it, the Fire Lord conceded that he had been beaten. He told Akumu that he would draw his army out of the other nations as soon as the Avatar left, but Akumu highly doubted that Ozai would keep true to his promise. He decided to stay at the Fire Palace to keep an eye on him. In the days that followed, the Avatar saw that his assumption was correct, and the Fire Lord had no intention of withdrawing his armies. Though Ozai constantly assured him that the time would come soon, he failed to act on this promise. In fact, he was actually planning to wage more attacks in the other nations. Upon learning this fact, Akumu became livid with rage, and he immediately sought out the Fire Lord, eventually locating him in his war chamber. Blinded by his fury, he neglected to see that he had fallen into a trap before it was too late. All of the most skilled Firebenders had been assembled in this room, and they jumped on him as soon as he had stepped over the threshold. Unprepared for this sudden move against him, Akumu fell to the ground after being met with this onslaught of fire. But despite his greatly weakened state, he still bested all of the Benders that stood against him-save one. In the tumult of the battle, Ozai managed to ship away undetected. While the fight still raged on, Ozai prepared to launch the most powerful Firebending technique in his arsenal against the Avatar whilst he was still distracted. His plan proved to be a complete success; his attack had indeed caught Akumu completely unawares. As the Avatar lay on the ground, desperately trying to recover, the Fire Lord issued his last strike against him-a spear through the heart.
In one foul swoop, Ozai stole the other nations' last hope of redemption. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, hope completely vanished from the hearts of those who had survived the war. They knew all was truly lost now, for the next nation in the cycle was the Fire Nation, and an Avatar from that nation would most certainly be against them. In mass ceremonies, the people of the Water and Earth nation mourned the loss of the man who had seemed like he would truly be their savior, for they knew there was nothing to look forward to now but death and destruction.
There were also ceremonies in the Fire Nation, but not of mourning. Instead, they were of celebration. Not only had their greatest foe been vanquished, but also Fire Lord Ozai's wife had born her first child, a son, who would take the Throne when Ozai had perished. He was named Zuko, and the citizens of the Fire Nation believed him to be blessing, for he had been born mere hours after the defeat of Avatar Akumu.
Though the Fire Nation did not know it at the time, this was a most unfortunate occurrence indeed.
Well, there you have it. Sorry it had to be so boring, but I really wanted to get out some of the history behind this fic, although technically you really only needed to read the last few lines to get the idea. Bet you're staring at this now and thinking "Oh, now she tells us. If she'd put that before, I wouldn't've had to deal with her boring history lesson!" I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be evil like that. Or maybe I did.
Anyway, please, go ahead, tell me what you think.
La Moirae
