I chuckle at the saying "how the mighty have fallen." Do you want to know why? Because I am the furthest thing from it and yet I had to hear it every single day from the same guards that used to cower before me, since the day I have been here! Wait…..how long have I been here? Augh! I can't remember. No matter, where was I? Ah yes, that annoy little saying. One of the guards on duty particularly annoyed me; a man with the widest, most disgusting snide smile you have ever seen. He would always visit me as soon as his shift started just to say that.
And he used to say it with such confidence too! I'm sure if I had my bending he would bow down before me and beg for his sad life! But even that little dream was taken from me when the Avatar defeated me. Sometimes I sit here for hours on end, trying to find a bit of warmth, a spark, that is no longer there. The Avatar took my bending from me and there is nothing I can do about it. But I swear I will claw my way back to a throne that is rightfully mine and crush him like the bug that he is!
In fact, how is the Avatar lately? The last thing I heard was that he got marries to some water witch, and that feels like eons ago.
I laugh at the thought. Are they desperately trying to bring back a civilization that my grandfather destroyed? Oh, how much joy it would bring me to repeat history;, to snuff out any hope he has of reviving his lost brethren. I can see it now: the tears streaming down his face as he watches the woman he loves and their offspring being set ablaze; their screams making his eardrums burst, the smell of their burning flesh filling his nostrils, him begging for deaths kiss in the hopes that he might join them. It all sounds so wonderful.
I get so caught up in my fantasies that I fail to notice two have entered my room. When I address them I tell them to leave me be. Instead of complying they move towards me and lift me to my feet with ease. I attempt to struggle, but it's no use. My body won't follow my own commands. Since when have I become this frail?
They place me on a bed that was waiting outside my room and wheel me down the hall. One of the two whispers in my ear, "It will all be over soon." What does he mean?
The other man, who seems to have heard what his friend said says, "Don't show him respect he doesn't deserve" The first man snorts a laugh. "I'm not showing respect, only pity."
The next thing I am aware of is a dimly lit room. I can tell that there others in the room present, but my sight fails me to the point of where I can't make out their features. One of them steps over me and says to another in the room, "He does not have much time left, Fire Lord Zuko."
Zuko….That name sounds vaguely familiar but I can't place it. It does not matter. If I can't remember, it was not worth knowing in the first place. But what is this about 'my time'?! I am eternal! I am a god made flesh! It is my time when I alone say so! I will make this world burn, and with it, The Avatar! I am the Phoenix King!
As the last bit of life fades from Ozai's eyes, Avatar Aang at forty years of age clasps one of his oldest friends on the shoulder, trying to offer comfort.
"It's okay, Aang." Zuko replies. "The world is free of him, and he is free of the world."