A year passed.
Not quietly.
Not gently.
The Earth Kingdom did not realize it had already been unified—not by banners or conquest, but by infrastructure, loyalty, and fear carefully rationed.
Kings still sat on thrones.Generals still wore medals.Merchants still argued over tariffs.
But every supply line, every elite unit, every meaningful decision eventually passed through me.
I was seventeen.
And I ruled the largest nation on the planet without ever declaring myself its ruler.
My private military no longer resembled an "experiment."
It was an army.
Not massive in raw numbers—but terrifying in quality.
Elite benders trained in combined disciplines
Metal and lava specialists deployed in precision squads
Non-benders enhanced with technology, chi-training, and tactical doctrine
Engineers who thought in decades, not battles
White Lotus masters acting as advisors, instructors, and silencers
No conscripts.No patriotism.Only competence.
And loyalty—not to a nation, but to me.
The Fire Nation still stood.
That was not weakness.
That was restraint.
I could hurt them. Severely.I could cripple ports, assassinate commanders, collapse foundries.
But I could not end them in a single decisive stroke.
Not yet.
And a prolonged war—even one I would eventually win—was unacceptable.
Stalemate was the enemy.
That left me with two days written into destiny.
The Day of Black Sun
Or
Sozin's Comet
Both offered absolute advantage.
Only one offered control.
I considered Black Sun first.
The Fire Nation without firebending was not merely weakened—it was exposed.
My forces did not rely on fire.
Earthbenders still reshaped battlefields
Metal troops remained fully operational
Technology functioned without bending
Bloodbending, energybending, and chi disruption ignored the eclipse entirely
A strike during the Black Sun would be surgical.
Decapitation, not annihilation.
Leadership removed.Factories seized.Naval command neutralized.
The war could end in hours.
But…
The Fire Nation would survive.
Their identity intact.Their pride wounded—but not broken.
And pride breeds revenge.
Then there was Sozin's Comet.
A day of fire.
A day of legends.
A day when the Fire Nation would believe itself invincible.
That belief was a weakness.
My forces were designed for that day.
Heat-resistant armor
Counter-fire technology
Black flame containment protocols
Dragons in the sky—mine included
Energybending capable of stripping comet-enhanced firebending permanently
If I struck then…
I wouldn't just win.
I would rewrite the myth of Fire Nation supremacy.
But the cost would be higher.
Cities would burn before I could stop them.Civilians would suffer.History would remember blood.
So I waited.
I gathered intelligence.
I refined logistics.
I trained commanders to operate independently of me—because a real army does not collapse if its leader falls.
And in the quiet hours, alone with my dragon perched beside me, I admitted the truth I hadn't voiced aloud.
This wasn't just about victory.
It was about what kind of world followed.
End the war cleanly on the Black Sun, and I become the unseen hand that saved the world.
End it on Sozin's Comet, and I become the force that ended an age.
Both paths led to peace.
Only one let the Avatar return to a world that still believed in mercy.
I exhaled slowly.
Timing was everything.
And the world didn't yet know it was already waiting for my decision.