The entity formerly known as Firelord Ozai had taken shelter in the mountains of the Earth Kingdom, deciding to recuperate before he made his next move.

The Fire Nation Palace had been destroyed and hopefully his wretched excuse of a son had been burned away with his precious 'new' family.

The colonies established in the Earth Kingdom by his ancestor, Firelord Sozin had been destroyed to lure in the Avatar and to make a statement to the world:

The old world will burn and a new one will rise.

"You…"

Agni spun around, hearing a strange voice in the cave. "Who is there?"

"Such an interesting face you have."

'Eyes' narrowing, Agni carefully looked around to find the source of the voice, coming upon a small puddle that was glowing. He knelt down to take a better look…

And a tendril lashed out and grabbed him, pulling him in.

Agni grunted as he pulled into the puddle even though it was impossible and felt the water against his fiery body, causing steam to rise as he was pulled down. Once he was completely pulled down, he fell with the tendril wrapping around his body.

"I believe your face is the most unique of all."

Opening his eyes, Agni was greeted with the sight of a horrendous creature. A giant eight foot centipede like creature with its head resembling an eyelid and in the center was a female Noh mask for a face, colored white with red lips and grey eye markings.

"I am going to enjoy adding it to my collection." The creature said as its eyelid closed.

It would be at this point that the mortal was supposed to let out a scream just before they had their face stolen by Koh, the Face-Stealer. Only Ozai was no longer a mere mortal and the spirit's statement caused his fire to flare as he let out a roar. A red light shot out as the creature's eyelid opened, colliding with Agni's face and Koh's pincers moved to take his face.

Only the problem was Agni's face wasn't like a usual mortal's face.

It wasn't made of flesh and blood.

It was made of molten rock.

Add to the fact that Agni's new body was composed of a bright inner plasma body and the moment Koh's pincers touched his 'face' they burned.

"AH!" Koh screamed, feeling the heat and pain.

The fire around his body exploded into a pillar of fire, causing Koh to grunt, his tendril burning and forcing him to let go of Agni who landed in the water. Agni stood up, looking around and seeing he was in some kind of swamp with trees having their roots extending out from the ground, looking like they were literally lifting the trees up above the ground.

Agni had yet to realize he had been brought to the Spirit World by Koh so he could steal his face and neutralize Agni as a threat.

Koh stepped back, his face morphing into that of a screeching monkey as Agni landed before him.

"I see now, you're a spirit." Agni looked around. "So, this must be the Spirit World. What an honor it must be…For you to bring me here." Agni held up a flaming hand. "So, I can conquer it as well!"

Koh responded by lunging at Agni again. He didn't know why he failed to steal Agni's face as such a thing was impossible. He didn't know it but because of the solar radiation of Agni's new body, he naturally could protect himself from any spirits seeking to possess his body…

Or steal his face.

Agni released a blast of fire at Koh who shot through the flames, his armored body protecting him and doing little more than annoying the spirit. Agni shot out of the way, fire blasting from his feet that propelled him into the air. Spinning around and seeing his opponent in the air, Koh lashed out at the surrounding trees, causing them to all with a few falling towards Agni. The former Fire Lord hastily dodged but had no time to react as Koh had scurried up a nearby tree and leapt at him, catching him as they fell back down into the water.

SPLASH!

"If I can't steal your face," Koh said, now speaking through an elderly man as he pinned Agni under the water. "I'll just keep you underwater until you extinguish."

Agni grunted as he struggled to break the water began to bubble and steam rose.

"I don't know how you can resist my power to steal faces but this only shows you must be dealt with. Take pride." Koh leaned in, looking down at Agni just a few inches above the boiling water. "No one has ever held out this long."

However, what came next was a burst of fire directly from Agni's mouth, shooting up through the water and right into Koh's face, burning the elderly face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Koh screamed and flailed in pain, getting off of Agni as he stepped back, switching to the Noh mask face but was still feeling the pain.

Agni leapt up and this time slammed into Koh, placing his hands on the face and burning it next. Koh screamed even louder as he tried to get Agni off of him but Pyronite released fire from his feet, slamming Koh into the ground and kept his hands on the spirit's 'face' as he tried to blink.

"I see…" Agni grinned. "This is your weakness. I just need to burn through each and every face you have until there's no more and I can slay you from the inside!"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Koh screamed even louder, his centipede body flailing as he tried to get Agni off of him, Agni's 'rocket' feet and the fire surrounding his body allowed him to keep Koh pinned.

Koh's Noh mask 'face' burned off, followed by his eye lid and Agni dug in even deeper, pushing past the face and releasing a blast of fire that traveled through Koh's body, burning the spirit from the inside out…

Just as Agni said.

After a few more minutes, Koh suddenly became still, the lower of half of his body that had been flailing falling to the ground but Agni continued blasting until his flames through the back of Koh's head.

Koh the Face Stealer was dead.

Agni stood up, staring down at the dead spirit before looking up at the sky with a grin and let out a victorious roar.

In another part of the Spirit Real, the Mother of Faces one of the most powerful, ancient spirits and the mother of Koh felt her offspring perish and trembled in sheer heartbreak before letting out a scream.

Xxx

Back in the mortal realm, Aang let out a gasp as his tattoos glowed, sitting up from his bed.

"Aang?"

He looked over to see Katara kneeling next to him. "Katara."

"What is it?" Katara asked, knowing immediately that something was wrong.

"I felt something…Something in the Spirit Realm…" Aang brought a hand to his face. "…I think…"

He then remembered what he had been told by the spirits.

Koh had been sent to deal with Ozai.

Did he succeed?

No…

Aang actually wanted to believe that he had but his spiritual senses were screaming of a great imbalance in the Spirit World.

Something had disturbed the natural order.

And he felt all of the Avatar of his past lives screaming at him, warning him what had happened.

"Aang?" Katara shook Aang by the shoulder.

Aang looked at her with a frightful look.

"Koh is dead."