<span style="font-style: italic">Home.</span><br/><br/>It had been so long since they had been home that Xiao had been home that she felt a strange emotion well up inside. Was it happiness? Joy? Comfort? She could not quite figure it out, though she knew from the sight of the great nation before her that this was not the home of their birth. It had changed so much, that even the hum of the earth was different. Felt different and almost sad, as if the pain of the people had sank into the very earth beneath their feet.<br/><br/>Ever at her brother’s side she was there to confront their childhood friend, now a man of great power and skill to try and put a stop to a war before all paid for the petty squabbles of those with power. It had appeared to work, Ro was relieved though something just felt wrong to her. The whole thing had been too easy and she just was not sure about it all. When they were children their friend had often had dreams of grandeur and plans for a future; while they were away it would appear that he had indeed gotten most of those plans underway.<br/><br/>Would he just so simply stop his own life’s work in face of that of Ro’s? Simply because he was the Avatar?<br/><br/>She did not think so…<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Pain.</span>As fresh as if it were her own shot through her heart as she stared with disbelieving eyes at a man she once cared for so deeply murdered the other half of her soul.<br/><br/>“No…no…no….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”<br/><br/>The scream tore from her throat as she stood against the first attack, though as the second wave within the Earth happened she was knocked back into the rest of their friends. It felt unreal and like a nightmare from something bad they had eaten. How often had Ro teased her about having a stomach of stone? That one day it would bite her in the ass? Perhaps, this was that time? When she was forced to live through this nightmare and wake up exhausted and possibly tossing the rest of what remained in her stomach, but at least Ro Pan would still be alive. At least she would still have her brother.<br/><br/>And yet, as the clay earth became mudded and crimson from his blood she knew this was no dream, but a horrible reality.  With that realization sparked an anger that would have made any from the fire nation proud, so that when she regained her footing the ground beneath their feet trembled something fierce and she made as if to take off after the coward only for a hand to stall her. A familiar hand, whose grasp even in these dying moments was strong enough to keep her in place.<br/><br/>“Ro…” the tears came easily and unnoticed as she knelt down at her brother’s side, hands that were often steady as the element she was born to bend now shook with barely contained emotions as she pulled her brother’s head into her lap that she might cradle him. There was the thought to hush him, to plead with him to save his strength, because she knew he would make he just had to wait for help to arrive. Yet, she knew those were the desperate thoughts of a heartbroken sister who had never thought for a second that she would lose her brother.<br/><br/>He was the Avatar. The Master of all the elements, there was no one more powerful than he in this world, and yet he had fallen…<br/><br/>Without a true mental comprehension she nodded her head at his words, “I promise brother…” she softly sobbed down to him as she held him to her. When his last breath left his body she found herself unable to let him go, instead she rocked gently to and fro while she repeated over and over. “I promise brother…I won’t forget brother……”<br/><br/>“I love you…”<br/><br/>The world felt…empty to her now and though there was the danger of Yu’s men returning to slay them all, she could not yet bring herself to leaving him. Could not bring herself to let him go…not just yet…<br/><br/>“I promise…I won’t forget…”