Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

As the elements whirled about him in a cyclone, the Avatar eyed the shackled criminal with an unforgiving stare.

For over a century, Fire had sought to dominate the other elements, bringing terrible destruction to peaceful lands. The seemingly endless war had devastated the balance, the necessary balance, for no reason other than mortals' greed. The most ancient, powerful spirits had been threatened, wounded, even killed. And then, as the world teetered on the brink of collapse…this human sought to destroy a whole continent, to throw the elements out of balance forever.

Not in ten thousand years had the world seen such horrific crimes, and it called for justice. It demanded payment in blood. It hungered for vengeance.

His body filled to bursting with the world's wrath, his vision clouded by the harsh glow of a thousand lives, the Avatar passed judgment. The threat to balance ended here.

A primal shriek ripped the air as the Avatar slashed down with all the might of the cosmos.

Water hardened into shards of ice, then melted in streams of fire, then froze once more amid the searing flames. The winds howled through rocks that gleamed like steel. Wildfire, drawing from the power of the comet, snapped and crackled with electric edges. It was a storm of power unlike any the world had ever witnessed.

And in its midst danced a glaring luminescence, terrible in its fierce beauty, the primordial rage of the Avatar unleashed.

The unstoppable torrent of energy would reach its target in seconds, obliterate the offender, destroy the threat to –

The defenseless offender.

Aang blinked through the glow. The elemental gale wavered.

He had done his duty. He had beaten the Firelord in single combat, so completely that not even the Comet could change the outcome of the fight. The Firelord, eyes bulging in terror, was at Aang's mercy: defeated, restrained, helpless.

Aang couldn't hurt a helpless man.

The elements separated harmlessly as he released them. His past lives clung for a second longer before they too let go the deadly storm. Comparative quiet blanketed the pillar as his glow faded. The winds whirling around him sounded oddly subdued in the absence of the violent forces he had just wielded. Or maybe it was Aang's senses that had dulled, his perception returned to that of his human body.

Smoke rose from the remains of pillars he had devastated in his cosmic rage. Far off in the distance a pillar collapsed, sending an avalanche of rocks plummeting to the valley floor.

So much damage…so much thrown out of balance.

At the very edge of Aang's muted perception, Ozai groaned. The defeated Firelord's rocky restraints had collapsed, but Aang was too overwhelmed to care. All that power…it was as limitless as the Spirit World, focused to a knife's edge, and he hadn't killed Ozai with it. His past lives had pushed for justice, and part of him had yearned to follow their demand, to follow that instinct. As the Avatar, it was his duty to destroy any threat to his world's stability.

"No," he whispered. He was more than just the Avatar. He was Aang, too.

He shook his head, clearing the fog from his senses. "No," he repeated, his voice louder, stronger. "This isn't the way. I…I won't end it like this."

Before he had departed to prepare for the battle, the lion turtle had given him something – some power, or perhaps knowledge, if there was a difference between the two – and given him advice to use it.

"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed."

"Even with all the power in the world…" Ozai sneered, his voice dripping with venomous contempt, breaking into Aang's thoughts, "…you are still weak."

Filling his lungs with fuel for his fire, Ozai pressed his hand against the ground and threw himself forward.

But Aang was listening.

The tremor brushed his senses. Aang opened his eyes.

Now.

As the Firelord launched himself into the attack, Aang bent his torso and slammed his foot into the hard rock. Grumbling with purpose, a slab of rock smashed into Ozai's outstretched arm, redirecting the stream of flame above Aang's bowed head. Muscles taut, Aang clenched his fists, wrapping the rock around Ozai's wrist.

His other hand. Spinning behind Ozai, Aang lifted his arms. Another slab sprouted to imprison the arm swinging toward him, cutting off the deadly blast of flame before it could do more than brush his face with its warmth. Sliding across the pillar's rough surface, he forced the slabs down, trapping Ozai's legs, preventing any escape attempt.

Ozai inhaled deeply, desperately. Aang threw his arms forward, and the whirling gust caught Ozai's fiery breath. One step, another, a third, Ozai's eyes glazing in shock as the scorching air battered his face.

Aang stood before the vanquished Firelord, one hand on Ozai's forehead, the other over Ozai's heart. The true heart, the true mind.

He paused, uncertain.

Ozai's spirit was unbroken. Perhaps it couldn't be broken, so strong was the fire of hatred inside him. And that fire would continue the fight as long as breath remained in the evil Firelord's body.

There had to be another way. What had the lion turtle meant? Aang was touching Ozai's heart, sort of. He'd felt the terrible hatred in every second of the great battle between them.

Ozai's eyes flickered to and fro, two amber circles reflecting the angry flames of the Comet. They were still unfocused, but Aang knew he had only seconds until the Firelord regained his wits. And then…

I can't avoid this any longer. I need to end this now. What "illusions"? What is the "true mind"? How am I supposed to –

He sat on the staircase. The breeze caressed his face, brushing against his closed lids. Guru Pathik was beside him, his gaze fixed on the setting sun, his wrinkled fingers steepled together.

"The greatest illusion of this world, young Aang, is the illusion of separation," Pathik said. "Things that you think are separate, that may look different on the surface, are really one and the same!"

"Like the four nations," Aang said slowly, evenly.

"Yes." The lone word conveyed the guru's approval. "Though we live divided, we are in fact all the same people."

"We're all connected." Slowly, a smile spread across Aang's face. "Everything is connected."

"Even the elements!" Pathik exclaimed. "The separation of the four elements is only an illusion. If you open your mind, you will see…they're all one and the same."

Aang raised an eyebrow quizzically. "How could they be? Air and Earth are opposites, and so are Fire and Water. They're all so…different!"

The ancient man laughed heartily. "Why, young Avatar, if they are so different, how is it that you control them all in the same manner?"

Aang's jaw dropped. He'd never thought about it that way.

"The elements are all one, Aang," Pathik continued. "They are all energy. Energy takes different forms, yes, but in the end, it is still energy…"

The memory faded, returning Aang to the present. Beneath his hands, Ozai writhed, seeking to escape his bonds of stone. Large muscles heaved, straining to find a weakness. It didn't matter, though, because finally, Aang understood.

"In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves."

Ignoring the Firelord's enraged snarl, Aang reached – not outward, for the elements, but inward, for himself.

A deep ringing filled the night air. Bright beams, pure white tinged with cerulean, shot into the heavens from Aang's eyes and mouth. He could feel the energy rushing through his body, the chakras pushing it through faster than Aang could ever have imagined.

But it was so much more than just energy. Every thought, every hope, every dream he had ever had…all his fears, all his doubts, everyone he had ever loved, every obstacle he had ever overcome, every enemy he had ever faced…

Taking a deep breath, feeling the air reverberate within his soul, Aang pushed once more, this time into Ozai's soul. Three more beams shot skyward, yet these were orange and red, filled with rage and malice, with a cruel lust for power.

And behind it all, blazing with a fire so alien that the Comet seemed familiar in comparison, rested the source of Ozai's Firebending.

Tentatively, Aang reached one final time –

– and was blasted by a red fury so powerful that, had he not been rooted to the spot, he would have been hurled from the pillar.

Violent images engulfed him. A blazing village, its inhabitants shrieking in terror while a young Captain throws great balls of fire and laughs – prisoners burning, a score of men in all, a massive stone wall curving behind them as far as the eye could see – an old Firelord, cold eyes pitiless as he pronounces that his grandson must die – a son pleading for mercy, for his father's love, but receiving nothing except a terrible scar…

The boy cried out in horror at the sheer evil, the black hatred thick as the smoke of a thousand infernos, a desire to cause pain that he had never known before. He wanted to run, to hide, to leave forever, if only he could escape the madness – no, he had to kill, to destroy the man before him –

He heard the lion turtle's voice: "To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed" – but that was said to another boy, one who knew what peace meant and cared about all living things, one who had a purpose, one who knew his own name –

A sickening malevolence crept over his body, slowly consuming his skin. The beautiful luminescence was almost gone, smothered by the overpowering evil; the ringing he had heard earlier was back, only sour, and he couldn't take it any longer, it was so easy to just fade, let the evil man take the victory that he was seconds away from –

"You can do it."

The dark storm of hatred halted. Desperate, the boy reached for the voice, wondering whom it could possibly…

"I know you can. You're a talented kid."

The boy remembered climbing a green hill, a timid flame trembling in his hand, and an older boy – Zuko – encouraging him. He remembered smiling, the flame growing with confidence as the Fire Prince's words lifted his spirit.

The man's soul attempted to snuff out the memory, but the boy was already searching for more, for another that could –

"You just stood your ground against ME. You've got the stuff."

A girl his age, blind and almost as lonely as he, but fearless, steadfast, unyielding. He remembered Toph's punches of affection, her blunt sarcasm, her broad smiles.

"You can do this. You're ready."

Ozai seethed, the raging fire inside him throwing its might at the boy's spirit, but Sokka's goofy clumsiness, the bad jokes that hid the true heart of a warrior and friend, deflected it aside.

A former general, once an enemy, nodded in approval. "Perfection and power are overrated. I think you were very wise to choose happiness and love."

The boy knew that he was close, so close. Iroh was wise, and he had said that happiness, that love –

Love.

Gasping at the frigid air –

"You're smart, brave, and strong, and I know you can do it."

– fighting against the numbing cold that had seeped into his heavy limbs –

"We've been through so many things together, and I've seen you grow up so much."

– feeling gloves, gentle, supportive, on his bony shoulders –

A dance in a candlelit cave, a hundred dances among the river reeds, eating together, laughing, snuggling, crying, arguing, fighting, hugging, kissing…

– he opened his eyes.

Aang saw her.

Pure white brilliance exploded forth, washing away the terrible images in a wave of warmth. The hatred struck forth with all its power, but the heartbreakingly beautiful light batted it away. It expanded, ringing with the song of the world as it launched itself skyward, seeking to touch the stars.

His heart swelled with each note of the light's song as it rose, its blue sheen eclipsing the Comet's red glare, and Aang poured his love for Katara into the dazzling radiance, and he cried out, adding his elation to the wondrous music for all the world to hear.

For he was whole.

A/N: Had this sitting on the backburner for a little while. Inspired by all the discussions I've had about Energybending :)