Fire was life. It was energy of the purest kind, burning within the soul of every Firebender. The art of Firebending itself was merely the manifestation of that energy in physical form.
For generations it was fueled from sheer passion: the right way, the true way. Love made the inner flames grow until it came to life outside the body. It was not like the other elements; it came to life on its own, forever growing.
The beginning of the war changed all that.
When Sozin led the first attack against the Earth Kingdom, he let it be known that love was a sign of weakness. His soldiers were encouraged to use rage instead of love; to sever all emotional ties. That way fire would not be restrained by such illusions as compassion and sympathy.
There was only one fault: the flames from within were quickly depleted. Rage was no substitute for love. It consumed from within, devouring a man's life force and destroying him completely. That was how the first generation of new benders perished.
Fire could no longer be fueled from within, Sozin had decided. But it must not be defeated by love either. Both would cause the empire he had created to collapse.
There was only one solution.
Exterminate love; eradicate it from the heart of every soldier. Replace it with rage. Pure, unrestrained anger only the most powerful can feel. Force the men to be vicious, merciless, such that even the screams of helpless children cannot faze them in the slightest.
Once all were hardened against that, use a different source. Energy from within would not do; it only led to self-destruction. An external source was needed. So, he created a new form of bending where instead of depleting his own energy, he used an existing fire.
The Firelord could not find fault in that. After all, where there was life, there was heat, and that meant fire in some form or another. With his technique the Fire Nation would be the greatest power the world had ever known.
Sozin let it be known that everyone was to keep a fire burning at all times. He made sure that no knowledge of the old ways would remain. Works of art and literature pertaining to the ancient traditions were destroyed. With that, he set about eliminating the greatest sign of all: the dragons.
Through conniving and propaganda, he convinced his people that dragons were inferior to humans. The hunting of the beasts became common sport under his rule. When he died, the ritual became necessary for all great masters. The number of them declined, until only two remained, the oldest, most ancient of the known dragons in existence.
This pair of dragons, Ran and Shao, had watched their kin as they were slaughtered. They had fled as fast as they could, hoping to stay alive, occasionally killing for that purpose. Every Firebender who came to slay them was the same and so met the same fate. That is, until a different one came.
He was strong. Arrogant even, but Ran and Shao didn't notice that. What they saw in him was a compassionate heart like they hadn't seen in decades. He was one who could learn their ways.
He had come to kill the last dragons, but he realized soon after their battle had begun that there was no way he could possibly defeat them both. He attempted to split them up, but in vain; the dragons eventually had him cornered. There was no fleeing now. He prepared for the shower of flame that was sure to come.
He expected a burning demise, but what he saw was definitely not so. The dragons were breathing fire, but it was in a flurry of colors he never knew it was capable of being. He watched the blaze and realized what they meant.
Iroh took a deep breath and sent a burst of flame blazing into the empty crimson sky.