The Cycle is ended. You must now wait until I eventually get around to writing more. Don't own Avatar or Hetalia!

Earth Kingdom

She was not sure how she came into being: she simply was. Vague memories of her brothers, from her earliest times, would flash before her eyes sometimes, but as the years passed even the memories of their faces faded.

When she was still young, he came to visit her. The Fire Nation. As she watched the construction of her future capital, gazing upon it from a cliff, she became aware of a presence approaching, and turned her emerald eyes to his amber ones, and felt her heart skip a beat.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I am the Earth Kingdom."

He was so wonderful, in those early years. Offering her aid whenever she needed it, guiding her through the difficulties of being a nation, teaching her how to use the information her brothers had passed to her when they became one with her. Once, when he was staying with her for a night, she crept from her room to his, and sat there, watching him sleep, resisting the temptation to trace his features with a finger, lest it wake him up.

She visited the Water Tribe as well. It was only once, but she was scared to death. The Fire Nation did not know: she didn't want to risk angering him by telling him what she had done. Her visit was brief, and she realized after an hour that the Water Tribe was descending into madness as his people tore themselves apart. That it could happen to her, as well, scared her to death. Earth Kingdom fled back to Ba Sing Se, the rapidly-rising metropolis that took up so much land, and did not leave it for three years.

Finally, she received word of his death. Half of his people, including the daughter the Air Nomads had born him, left for the South Pole. The rest, his son included, stayed at the North Pole. She felt guilty that she was relieved he was gone, yet how could she rest easily with an insane nation to her north? After telling her, the Fire Nation stayed with her for a whole year, and she felt safer than ever before.

They grew up together, and the Earth Kingdom realized she was in love with the Fire Nation. As her figure grew into that of a woman, she prayed he would take notice, that during one of the formal balls they would dance together at he would hold her close longer than strictly necessary, that when they walked through Ba Sing Se or his capital or one of the other cities they met in that he would take her hand. But he never did, and she despaired of ever having him.

Politics interfered like they always did, and a warlord came to power: Chin the Conqueror. The Earth Kingdom refused to accept the Fire Nation's help, even when only Ba Sing Se and a peninsula in the southernmost part of the continent remained free. Over the years, she had given birth to multiple children, the Si Wong Desert, Omashu, Ba Sing Se, Gaoling, others. She had hoped, at first, that the Fire Nation would want her if he saw that so many other men saw her as desirable. He never gave a sign, not a flicker of jealousy, even as her belly grew big and she bore another child, a son or a daughter, to represent the more-or-less independent parts of her home.

Chin the Conqueror died, at the hands of Avatar Kyoshi while she split her home village's land from the mainland to form Kyoshi Island. Again, a child was born to the Earth Kingdom, a daughter, Kyoshi Island. Avatar Kyoshi went on to quell a citizen uprising that was sending Ba Sing Se into madness, saving the Earth Kingdom's eldest daughter. When she died, leaving behind the Kyoshi Warriors and the Dai Li to keep the peace in her home, the Earth Kingdom wanted to lay her to rest in a magnificent tomb. But the Avatar's last wish was to be buried humbly at her home, and so she was.

Half a century after Kyoshi's death, the Earth Kingdom noticed the Fire Nation begin to act strangely. He was less patient, more prone to anger, quicker to snap when a servant did something wrong. They saw each other less, and the Earth Kingdom began to fear she had angered him somehow.

One day she felt a sharp pain in her body, and knew immediately that her daughter Taku was in trouble. She ordered transportation, and found the coastal city smoking, with a Fire Nation flag flying from its highest tower. To say she was furious would have been accurate. To say she was hurt would have been an understatement. Using her anger to mask her pain, she demanded the Fire Nation tell her what the meaning of this was. He claimed his people were too numerous, and that this was his way of sharing his recent advancements with her.

The Avatar took her side, and ordered the colonies ended. For years afterwards, she refused to see the Fire Nation, knowing it was childish of her to refuse to meet with him but too proud to accept merely an apology. No, he would have to do some deed to prove to her that it was truly all a mistake.

Twelve years after Avatar Roku died, the Fire Nation massacred the Air Temples. They were wiped out simultaneously, but according to reports, he had personally killed the Western Air Temple, who he had before spoken of fondly, saying she was like a daughter to him.

At first, the Earth Kingdom didn't believe it. But she traveled to Taku, where she knew he would next attack, if that was his intent, and she waited. And he did come, and she wondered if her heart would break from this betrayal. His armies bombarded the city, and her body burned with the fires he was inflicting upon it.

Taku fell, her daughter died, and she was captured. The Earth Kingdom was led to the Fire Nation in chains, gagged and unable to convey her hatred for the man she couldn't help but love but for the glare her green eyes gave him. There was a strange look on his face, and she realized it was a mix of the insanity she had glimpsed in the Water Tribe the day she visited him and the love she had seen men bestow on their women. Where once she would have welcomed the love he gazed at her with, now, with the ashes of her citizens staining her skin and their death cries still ringing in her ears, she only glared at him.

He ordered everyone out, then undid her gag and spoke softly to her, using a twisted logic to try to convince her that she should surrender to him. All it did was spur her to anger, and she spat in his face before realizing what she had done. Face grim, he used a rag that was once an Earth Kingdom emblem to clean his face.

"I will win, one way or another." He informed her grimly, all pretense of love gone. It had been only an act, hadn't it? He had known of her feelings for him, and wanted to take advantage of them to convince her to surrender, so that he could kill her like he had killed the Western Air Temple.

"You may burn my children and my home, and chain me in the deepest dungeon." She growled at him, feeling like her heart would break. "You may whisper words of your pretend love to me and bind our hands together. But I will never surrender."

"My 'pretend' love?" The Fire Nation looked stunned, as if he had thought he was so great an actor he could fool her indefinitely. His face clouded with pain, and for a moment the Earth Kingdom doubted it was just an act. But his eyes hardened, and he knelt down to look her directly in the eye. "I speak only the truth when I say I am in love with you." Came the soft words, and she was pulled into a harsh kiss, and his lips were burning hot, and she fought back as hard as she could, but she wasn't strong enough. Mere hours later, she awoke from a light, troubled sleep, and slipped from his bed into the shadows of the camp. With silent footsteps, she made her way to an Earth Kingdom army base, and from there fled to Ba Sing Se.

The War had officially begun, but the Earth Kingdom knew something was different. Three months after that night, her stomach had begun to grow: six months after that, she gave birth to a child with the Fire Nation's golden eyes, but brown hair that neither of them possessed. Before the start of the War, she would have done anything to have that child: now she could only remember what had happened to bring her into the world, and was hardly able to stand the sight of her.

For nine months she tried to care for her baby, for their baby, but it was too much. She sent the child to him, along with a note that read the absolute truth and an utter lie, wrapped up in one. I hate you. Because she did, she hated him more than life, yet she still loved him with all of her heart. How such a contradiction could be, she did not know, and her heart raged with the pain of it.

She threw herself into the War, never fighting on the front lines for fear of seeing him again, but always present at a major battle. Her sons and daughters, and some of them were captured, some of them died, but after losing none returned to her. For ninety years, she fought, until she was forced inside the walls of Ba Sing Se, her daughter's home that she had not seen since the beginning of the War. It was different—her daughter was different. Ba Sing Se spoke in a monotone voice, exalting the greatness of her house while denying the War, even as the Fire Nation army set up camp just outside her walls.

One day, the Earth Kingdom ventured to the wall, and paced its length. She looked out over the tents, hoping without reason to catch a glimpse of the man she loved and hated. But he wasn't to be found, and she left the wall with an oddly heavy heart. The day after she ventured outside, the wall was breached. A week later she sent a special guerrilla force to attack the Fire Nation Army's commanding officers, and they pulled out entirely.

Ten more years, and she heard that the Avatar had returned at last. Thought to be dead with the Air Nomads, he had returned, and she felt hope once more. When the great drill came to Ba Sing Se's walls, bearing the Fire Nation insignia, she nearly surrendered, but the Avatar came and destroyed it, and she was delirious with joy. She could win—she could avenge her children! The Fire Nation would pay for the pain and suffering he had put her through, for the burns that now marred her once flawless body.

He brought news of an eclipse, one that would allow her to strike against the Fire Nation when he was most vulnerable, but the advisor to her Earth King refused to consider it. Then he was brought down, and Ba Sing Se began to recover from her odd, vague state. The Avatar had to go off to learn more so that he could control his powers better, leaving only his friend Katara to aid in planning the invasion. Three Kyoshi Warriors, her daughter's people, came to the palace, and the Avatar's friend Sokka confirmed that they were allies.

But then it turned out they weren't allies, and the Dai Li, once allies, became enemies, and betrayed the Earth Kingdom to aid the deceitful Fire Nation Princess in conquering the Earth Kingdom. Azula was a sly one, pretending to be a Kyoshi Warrior to gain entrance to the city, tricking them all while convincing the Dai Li to join her side and performing a coup.

The hope that had grown inside the Earth Kingdom died when she was again brought to the Fire Nation in chains. He performed a great speech that outlined his love for her, and she listened because she didn't know what else to do, and because she had been conquered. She belonged to him now. What had once been the Earth Kingdom was now dead, Fire Nation territory and nothing more.

Did she imagine the regret in his eyes?

He set a wedding date, and she couldn't care less that she had once loved him. That she still did. What did a dead woman do with love? And even as they spent the last days of spring and all the days of summer together, eating, wandering the beautiful streets of her daughter's home, acting for all the world like a happy couple, she felt that her chest was cold and empty. Her eyes, once bright with life, now stared dully from her face, even as maids combed and brushed her hair to perfection, adorned her in beautiful jewels and robes. She was just…dead.

And at the end of the summer, her body once more felt as if she was being burned alive, and the Fire Nation held her close and whispered comfortingly to her as she screamed and writhed in pain. It ended as abruptly as it had begun, and the Avatar came to Ba Sing Se to declare the War over, and the Earth Kingdom free.

Before, she had not spoken. Why would she? The dead did not speak. With her freedom regained, she found the strength to tell the Fire Nation half of the truth.

"I hate you."

She nearly gained custody of the Fire Nation Colonies, but she didn't want the child, not really, and so her father maintained control of her. Time passed: she forgave the Fire Nation as he wept for what he had done, to her and her children, but he could not forgive himself, and she feared he would never be the same. Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko eventually died, and a new Avatar, Avatar Korra, rose. Still the Fire Nation was withdrawn. It was as if he did not believe she had forgiven him.

Then one day, he returned to himself. She hoped fiercely that perhaps now they could be what they never were, mutually in love. But he never looked at her the way he once had, during the War, during his insanity. One day she visited him without announcing it first, and saw him standing in a field, watching a young girl play. The look on his face told her everything.

Her beloved had fallen for his future ruler.

And try as she might to hate the smiling child, she could not. So when Li ran from her family, seeking refuge with the Earth Kingdom, she was welcomed with kind words. Li found happiness on Kyoshi Island, and the Earth Kingdom wondered if the Fire Nation would accept his Princess's departure as a sign that she would never love him back.

But she loved him back. She just didn't know who he was.

Now she was gone, and try as the Earth Kingdom might, she could not help but want to save Li. Li, who had brought such joy to Kyoshi Island. Li, whose absence was tearing the Fire Nation apart.

Li, her rival in love, who just might have captured her own heart as well.