Idea: What if the Gang didn't survive Lake Laogai?
Special thanks to Crystal. Blood and gore FTW.
Cold realization dawns upon him as wave after wave of green-clad men emerges from the shadows. Sokka grips his machete, clenching the weapon so that his knuckles turn white. He looks to Toph at his right and Katara to his left. The three back slowly to the center of the room, forming a triangle with their bodies, warily surveying their adversaries, the infamous Dai Li force of Ba Sing Se.
All hell breaks loose. The first line of men drops from the ceiling and triggers a massive quake in the wet floor of the headquarters. Toph forms an earthen shield to hinder their assailants while Katara commands her water with undisguised fury.
The three companions of the Avatar fight for their lives, but soon it becomes clear that they have no hope of defeating the countless agents attacking them.
A sudden silence behind them diverts their attention. Into the dim green glow of the crystal lamps steps Grand Secretariat Long Feng. He has a cruel sneer upon his lips as he stands poised in the tunnel that opens high in the wall, and he immediately gives an order:
"The Avatar and his allies are enemies of the state. Our former goal was to apprehend them and courteously escort them out of the city; however, that is no longer an acceptable option. Kill them all."
The battle rages on and Long Feng does not move from his lofty perch in the tunnel. It is almost as if he is mocking their helplessness, Katara thinks. That smug confidence and calm demeanor is almost disconcerting. Malice hangs unspoken in the air.
"Where's Aang?" demands Katara, bitter hatred obvious in her voice.
He shows his teeth in a leering smile. "Citizen Jet took the Avatar down due to the Avatar's hesitation. Jet is a good citizen indeed, is he not?"
"You monster!" snarls Katara. "You exploited a young man to your own ends! Of all the selfish, corrupt people I have ever met, you are-"
"The one who will lead this country to greatness," smoothly interrupts Long Feng. "Centuries of a monarchy will be brought to an end, and the Earth Kingdom will become the Earth Republic with me as head of state. The nation will be perfect utopia, free of ill-will and rebellion. The Avatar interfered with my work, and so it was necessary to eliminate him."
"You killed him for no reason at all!" Sokka accuses. "The Earth Kingdom is fine as it is!"
Long Feng is undaunted. "You believe the Earth Kingdom is perfect because you are fed that rubbish. The nation has been ruled by fools born to their positions instead of those who earn their rank. True geniuses such as me are the people who deserve to rule."
"The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. We will do anything to resist as long as we have hope." It is Toph who makes this blunt statement.
"There will be no need to stop me. Do you not see the beauty of this? Before I began running things, the Earth Kingdom had long been led by fools with no right to rule. Under my command Ba Sing Se has become a flourishing metropolis. It is time to expand this utopia to the rest of the nation."
"So you killed Aang simply for being in your way?" Katara's voice quavers and she wipes away the tears forming in her eyes. She falls to her knees, weeping in despair. "Not again, not again," she repeats to herself. Regaining her strength, she clenches her fists and rises with her head lowered in anguish. With a howl she summons all her will and pulls the water from the dank, damp stone walls to coalesce into a wave; Katara then hurls it at Long Feng in the form of a flurry of icicles.
Toph and Sokka assume offensive positions despite it being a futile effort with the looming threat of the surrounding Dai Li prepared to attack at any moment.
The frozen barrage is met with a slab of rock. They embed themselves into the cold stone and then shatter to the floor, useless.
Long Feng nods.
Katara seethes and pants as angry tears stream down her tanned cheeks, which glisten in the dim, faint green glow from the crystal lamps.
They shine a blood red when she falls.
Toph finds herself frozen in her trepidation. It seems as if every square inch of the slick floor is coated in blood in place of water. As blood and water converge, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to distinguish between the cool water dripping from the walls and the fluid spilling from Katara's body. A twitch in Toph's foot – only stickier.
As she stands petrified, scores of the Dai Li's signature rock fists batter her worn, beaten body. They bruise her pale skin, shatter her bones, and tear at her flesh before finally throwing her down to the bloodstained ground. Her blood mingles with that of the other dead girl.
Long Feng laughs a low, triumphant laugh as he faces down with Sokka, the last remaining member of Team Avatar, who looks upon the corpses of his sister and his friend with horror. "What a pity," the older man acknowledges." "They could have been of much use to me but alas, they resisted and chose their own demise." He waves his hand dismissively.
Sokka glances about himself. The exits are heavily guarded with legions of men, he notes, and any attempt to make it otherwise would be futile under the dire circumstances. It would be wisest to perish alongside his sister and his best friend. He lets his weapon clatter to the floor and then he surrenders.
A servant approaches Long Feng and Earth King Kuei in the spacious throne room in the palace at Ba Sing Se. Three warriors of Kyoshi claiming to be disciples of the Avatar have arrived, he quietly informs Long Feng. His task complete, the short man gives a low bow and exits the hall.
Kuei wonders what the matter is, but his adviser simply nods and reassures him that the matter is nothing to be concerned of. Doubts dispelled, the Earth King smiles, settles back into his seat, and turns his attention back to his beloved pet bear.
Pulling away from the naive monarch, Long Feng goes to receive the visitors himself. The leader of the troupe, a teenaged girl with dark hair pulled back into a topknot under an elaborate headdress, bows, as do the two women behind her. Rising, she introduces herself as Suki, captain of the Kyoshi Warriors, an elite group of female fighters trained to defend the innocent in the name of Avatar Kyoshi. They are the Earth Kingdom's humble servants, she says.
Long Feng calmly walks toward the leader. Then he smiles.
The girl's eyes pop wide as she realizes his motives. Before she can voice her suspicions, however, she spits out blood that drips onto the ground, leaving a crimson puddle. It covers her pale white hand; it soaks into her fingernails and drips off the tips.
Grand Secretariat Long Feng removes his hand to reveal a small marble-handled dagger protruding from her stomach.
"These three women are guilty of treason. They sympathize with the Avatar, an enemy of the Earth Kingdom. Take the other two into custody and have them executed, and then conceal all evidence here."
The taller of the remaining Kyoshi Warriors looks on, stoic, and the other holds back tears when their wrists are chained together and they are taken away. Behind them, two agents flip the bloodied stone so that it appears just as it once was with no sign of alteration or distortion.
The two warriors are executed in secret on the same day: the chipper, agile brunette is hanged and the tall, morose girl is tossed in a vat of corrosive acid until her body slowly dissolves.
A tattered poster for a traveling circus flutters in the wind through the streets of Ba Sing Se to settle before a tea shop in the Lower Ring.
The distraught owner of the shop laments the loss of his two best workers.
The younger of the dispatched employees converses with the ruffian he met long ago. They are both now loyal underlings of the government: one as a server of tea and the other as a personal bodyguard to the Earth King himself.
The guard looks to the heavens as he speaks of the promising future of a perfect nation. The sky is the limit, he says.
Looking upward, the waiter notices the lone sky bison aimlessly hovering in the skies above the city; it roams without direction and without destination. The waiter does not allow himself to get his hopes up.
Elsewhere, an ambitious lord develops a plan to spread his nation's greatness to the rest of the world. But that is a different story entirely.