Title: Slaughterhouse-Five
Rating: K+
Characters/Pairings: The Gaang
Summary: The army fails the night Sozin's comet returns…
A/N: Written for theavatar100 Challenge #88: Titles, in honor of the death of Kurt Vonnegut a year ago. Needless to say, it's AU like whoa (and also the inspiration for my next long-term Avatar story, once I get around to starting that.)
It is a child who comes upon the battlefield first, a mere boy who'd gotten separated from his family when they had fled the village. He approaches the temple of Agni slowly, breathing in the scent of stale air and burning flesh and fresh dirt and tripping over the loose earth and the ice slicks.
The smoke clears, and in front of him stands the only survivors of the battle of three armies. There are five people. Between the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation, only five people have lived through the fight that took place the night Sozin's comet returned to Earth.
Later the firebender will take the crown of the Fire Nation, and the earthbender will establish control of the Earth Kingdom. The siblings will split up the water tribes, with the warrior returning south and the waterbender going north.
The Avatar will sit above them and enforce a terrible peace through sheer force of will.
The Avatar's eyes are glowing, along with his tattoos, but despite this his gaze lands firmly on the boy. He drops to his knees, and silently mouths a prayer to Agni, knowing that the armies have failed. The Avatar and his cohorts have defeated the world's combined forces, and now there is no one left to stand against them as the Avatar controls the four nations – and his four companions - as easily as the four elements.
Originally published 04/12/2007