We used to be happy. We used to be free.

I read about it in history texts.

But with the fall of the Avatar, we took our supposed role as conquerors of the Nations and captured everyone. Slowly, one by one, we took over the entire world.

At least, we tried to. We still do try. We fight every single day to defeat our enemies who have never harmed us. We fight to find the Avatar and capture him before he can come of age and defeat us all. We fight to keep our hold on an invisible leash around the world and control the Nations we rule with fear. We fight because we are afraid.

We are all afraid. My father is afraid to lose control over the rest of the world. General Zhao is afraid to lose power to my father. I am afraid to lose any liberties I have left to General Zhao. My soldiers are afraid of me as any good underlings are afraid of their commander. The rest of the world is afraid of my army and the harm it has done to them.

The Avatar and his friends are afraid of losing.

They cannot afford to lose, for it will mean that the Fire Nation has won and the rest of the world is at our command. But that will only lead to new fears they cannot foresee: will the world rise up and overthrow us? Will the Avatar secretly master his power and destroy us all? Will we find conflict within our own ranks and hold an easily beaten and shaky dominance?

I couldn't say.

I don't have all the answers.

That's right, I like to pretend. I like to order people around and yell at them for not knowing answers to questions I couldn't answer if my life depended on it. I like to put up a front.

But I'm insecure, and I don't control my power completely. Winning one or two Agni Khai doesn't make for a great leader, no matter who is beaten. So like any other man in command who should not be, I mask my fear with anger.

I should not be in so much control, I can see. I am only sixteen and I have no business running an entire army. I have been hunting the Avatar for far too long now, since I was fourteen and even less qualified. All things I learned of rule have come from experience, and while that might be a good thing under different circumstances, it is no way for a child to learn to have power. Not on such a scale as this.

But I'll yell and scream and chase the Avatar and his friends as they evade my fire-blackened hand, time after time, and this running race will go on for eternity. He will dance just out of my reach and I will continue until the day I die, trying to find him and tie him to the ground.

He will win, of that I am certain. His steps are not complex, but they are quick and sprightly. He has the unpredictable habit of staying ahead of me, and while that itself should make him predictable, it does not. He makes no plans, and so I cannot guess at something that does not exist.

So I will fight on because it is all I know how to do. I will not submit to his magic, be it greater or lesser than my own. I will keep up my mantra because it gives me strength when I have none. I will not admit defeat.

I will capture the Avatar.