Disclaimer: You've pretty much got it down at this point. Don't own Avatar or anything related to it. Which means that most of this fic, in its glorious ambiguity, is mine. But I'm feeling charitable, so I donate the whole caboodle to the owners of Avatar, Michael Di Martino, Bryan Konietzko, and Nickelodeon. After you guys sell this fic for millions, could you at least mention me in the byline? Lotsalove – PetertheChameleon.
"The Fire Lord is defeated. All units stand down."
There it was. The last order they would ever receive as soldiers in the great, Imperial Fire Nation Army. It was almost like a dream. One he thought he might've had before, during those unbearably cold nights in the Southern Ranges or the miserably hot evenings inland of the mining towns. Something he could've wished for, had there been time between endless drills and even longer marches.
Now, though, the dream had become a reality, and the reality a nightmare.
They were obligated to give the order to their men. The captain, his commanding officer, sat on the back of his komodo-rhino – the very symbol of their home country – as he read it in a loud, steady voice.
"All units stand down."
The message meant something different for everyone. Some were relieved, still recalling that same dream he'd dreamt so often. Some were terrified, their thoughts to families who'd not yet grown faceless in their memories.
But many were like him – empty. What did they have, if they didn't have war? Their pasts were filled with death, now pointless. Their futures filled with uncertainty. And with their present robbed from them, the only thing worth fighting for was now only worth running from.
And so many did run. They ran away from the threat of the Earth Kingdom, or they ran toward their homes. They ran in defeat, or they ran out of fear. They ran with the knowledge that the Avatar, triumphant where so many others had failed, was now in charge of their fates. He didn't blame them for running, in the end. If the only thing remaining to him hadn't been his oath to the Fire Nation, he might have run too.
That morning when he awoke to a sweltering breeze and a morbidly quiet camp, he noticed something was off. And he discovered in the course of a stale breakfast and an even staler debriefing that his captain had deserted his post. Those were the most trying moments, when a handful of lieutenants with only a decade or so of combined experience behind them found themselves in charge.
And now he stood in front of the remnants of what used to be his company, their silent pleas for direction deafening. Where were the stirring words of their once-great Nation? Where was the spirit that drove them to the heights of victory and beyond the agonies of battle? Clearing his throat, he spoke in a tremulous voice that threatened to float away on the heavy coastal air.
"You have been ordered to stand down. But you stand here now, with me. Men, we have nothing left. Our homes are gone, our way of life destroyed. All that you have loved is now like ash in the wind. Many of your numbers have run. You may look around and no longer see certain faces. They have chosen their paths – they have seen the futility of our cause and have returned home to find something that they can fight for. But I think you all know as well as I that there is nothing to fight for anymore."
His words were somber, demoralizing, and the dark mood of the company threatened to suffocate them far quicker than the humid sea-breeze. "You have been ordered to stand down. But you stand here now, with me. Men, there is no more victory. Everything we do today will have no consequence on tomorrow.
"Yet I swore many years ago an oath to my nation – an oath I know that you took, as well. This oath said that, though we might struggle in vain, our suffering would be for a greater ideal. I still believe this. I said we have nothing to fight for, but we can still fight for ourselves. And those who might live will one day say that we found honor in serving that which we hold true. That we did not let defeat dictate the end of our battle. We had purpose, and though we might lose the war, we will never give up the fight for a dream much greater than our efforts here.
"If you run, you will be alive tomorrow. But what will you be living for? We all have different reasons for our lives here – some by choice, some by force. And only you can know if that reason is good enough to stand ready at our last, and greatest, battle. I think, though, you have already answered that question yourselves. You have been ordered to stand down. But you stand here now, with me. You realize, as well as I, that we have something to fight for: our honor, our memory, our dreams. So let us now fight for them, and let the spirits take what we refuse to give."
Their shouts swelled up the hill, as if thousands gathered where only hundreds did now. And as the Earth Kingdom army descended on them with tanks and rocks, they held their ground. To the last dying man, they earned that final honor for their nation.
They fought for their unrealized dream.