Avatar and the End

Avatar towered above the Shadow Lady. A grinding fortress of stone and metal. It was said that he had been human_, _once. A powerful super who could manipulate and control the elements themselves. He'd started with fire, water, earth, wind, the traditional four. But then, he'd spread out. Over time, he'd learned that he could replace parts of his body as they were damaged or grew old. Made replicas of stone or steel. His blood became magma, his eyes became crystals. His skin was rock, his muscles were lengths of corded metal. Organs within him had been replaced by pulsing geodes, and even his brain itself was said to have crystallised over time.

There was very little left of the human he had once been.

But that didn't matter because to the people of New Ember City - and the world at large - Avatar was THE hero. The first hero. The one who'd existed before the term ''superhero'' was even in use. He entered the history books at various points, his actions had helped to shape modern civilisation. He'd fought Rome on the banks of the Nile, he had marched with Alexander the great, or perhaps against him depending on the tale. He had certainly fought in both world wars, there were records attesting to such. But no one save Avatar himself knew the full length of his service. In his span of existence, he had been soldier, general, leader, warrior, chief, and more.

Now, he was a hero. But more than that, he was an ageless immortal. A being who had been part of recorded history ever since recorded history had been a thing at all. A heaving behemoth of the past whose age and power allowed him to skirt the modern laws which bound many other heroes.

No villain wanted to fight Avatar. No hero wanted avatar to fight. Because the thing about Avatar was that when he showed up, it was serious. When he fought, it was never with anything less than intent to kill.

Avatar held up his hands, and then brought them slamming together! A blast of kinetic force tore through the area, Dusklord felt himself hurled from his feet. Redwing grunted, barely resisting the same fate. The Shadow Lady simply took it. Her aura boiled around her.

"Immortal?" She grunted. "Do you think I fear you? I have slain things far more potent!"

Avatar didn't respond. Avatar never responded. Not when he was fighting. He didn't banter, didn't play around. He didn't trade words or barbs. If Avatar was fighting it was because you were a threat, and if you were a threat, he aimed to kill.

Like Redwing had said, Avatar was scary.

The Shadow Lady tried to kick off, to bring the fight to him but as soon as she tried, she realised that she was sinking. The earth below her had become like tar, and she was being dragged down by her own weight. She snarled, started to pull herself free. but Avatar filled the air with boiling ash. A swirling funnel cloud which encircled her and only her and rose into the sky. It moved faster and faster, lightning began to flow down its centre, striking through its eye to crash into her again and again. Shadows wrestled with the heat and force, the funnel began to distort. The Shadow Lady pulled herself free of the tar.

Next, Avatar tried ice. A snap freeze engulfed the area around her only. Again, it was impossible precise, the sort of isolation that would be impossible in nature. Yet to Avatar, it was simplicity itself. One moment, the Shadow Lady was engulfed in swirling ash, and the next all of the heat had been sucked out of her. Frost crackled along her skin, her feet stuck to the ground. She stumbled, almost surprised. She was immortal, but even she had to take time to adapt to such a rapid change. As she hit the ground, chains of metal rose up to ensnare her arms and legs. She pulled against them, trying to rip them from the earth but they would not break or bend even in the face of her power.

"What are you?" She turned to regard Avatar again. Both Dusklord and Redwing were forgotten now. "This power is beyond anything born mortal!"

For an answer, more chains sprang from the earth. They were forged there, generated beneath the ground by Avatar's will alone. He'd started as a simple elemental manipulator, but he was far more powerful now. The chained locked around her shoulders, her legs, around her throat. The Shadow Lady lashed out with her power, shattering them, breaking them. Tearing herself free but more and more continued to flow to her. For each one she destroyed, there were two more. They latched on to her, dragged her down. She snarled and fought. She was winning, but it was taking so much time! Avatar could generate chains just as quickly as she could break them, and neither immortal seemed to be close to running out of energy.

But even as she fought, Dusklord realized the chains were but a distraction. Something else was rising out of the ground around her. It was spherical, a circle with the Shadow Lady at the centre. It looked like glass, or maybe crystal. Thin walls of stone traced with latticeworks of the finest crystal he'd ever seen. As the chains shattered one by one, the walls turned into a sphere, growing horizontally to cover the Shadow Lady. The crystal walls surrounded her on all sides, even pushing out of the ground at her feet. The last of the chains broke, but the prison was completed.

No, Dusklord realised. Not prison. _Prism. _A sphere of light. Walls of crystal which bounced and reflected it. On all sides, surrounded by natural mirrors and magnifiers, Each wall of crystal was a complex mechanism, grown entirely from nature. They caught light, reflected it, captured it, kept bouncing it between themselves.

Finally, Avatar deigned to move. He raised one hand, his fist slowly clenched. Then, fire filled the prism. The Shadow Lady let out a howl, but it wasn't the heat which hurt her. It was the light. Magnified, intensified, bouncing between the reflections. It built on itself, becoming brighter and brighter such that even Dusklord had to look away. The Shadow Lady tried to gather more of her power, tried to shatter the rocks and break her way to freedom! But her shadows were weak here. This level of light was far beyond what even Redwing could produce. Something solid locked around her leg. More chains were arising from the surface of the prism. Chains of blazing crystal which burned her even as they locked around her. A nest of them wove around her body, engulfed her. She cried out, but all her power had fled.

The light intensified.

Outside, Avatar coated the walls in solid layers of rock. Slowly killing the light pollution, until all one could see was a sphere of seamless, perfect stone. Dusklord watched, waiting for his mother to burst through the stone with a cry of rage. But she didn't. She couldn't. Surrounded by heat and light beyond any she had felt before, she didn't have the strength to overpower Avatar's creation. She was trapped. What he and his brother and Lilly had struggled, and bled and fought to do, Avatar had accomplished in minutes.

He felt a cold shiver run up his spines. It doubled when Avatar's stony head turned towards him. Baleful crimson eyes burned into his forehead and he gulped.

"Avatar, enough," Lilly said, moving to stand between the two of them. "Dusklord isn't an enemy. You know that. He's just a villain."

Normally, his pride would have been hurt by that description, but right now, Dusklord would take being just a villain.

For an eternity, Avatar held his gaze on Dusklord. The arch-villain was desperately trying to figure out some way to escape if the city's most powerful hero came for him. The only conclusion he could reach is that he couldn't.

Then, at last, Avatar's head turned to look at Lilly.

"You are...unharmed?" His voice was not a natural voice. He formed words, but they were made of grinding stone and flowing metal. There was no voice box behind them, no breath to give them shape. It was an amalgam of words, just as Avatar was an amalgam of a man.

"I am alive," Lilly said, as if just realising it herself. "And free... I think... we won, didn't we? We actually won."

"So it seems," Dogma said weakly. "Unless you plan to do to me what you did to my mother, Avatar?"

It was a dangerous question, but he had to know the answer. Avatar turned to look at him.

"Are you....threatening the world or...the city?"

"I'm retiring," Dusklord said with feeling. "As of five minutes ago. Redwing will back me up on this. I already said to her."

"It's true," She laughed in spite of the situation. Seeing Dusklord so flustered was just so strange. "He is. He promised."

"You...believe...?"

"He wouldn't lie to me," Lilly said. "If he did, I'd kick his ass."

"Then you are... no threat..."

Avatar turned and started to walk away. Just walk away! One of the most powerful villains the city had ever seen was encased in a giant crystal ball, Dusklord was low on power and practically helpless, and Redwing was standing naked at his side. Yet Avatar cared for none of it. Dusklord watched, almost speechless. When he said it to Redwing, she just laughed again.

"That's how he is. The city will send someone to collect the sphere. As for me being naked... I honestly don't think he even noticed. Guy has not been flesh and blood for a very long time."

"Well," Dusklord said. "Believe me, after all of that, I've noticed."

"Really?" Lilly said. "Weren't you run through by a spear? I'd think you'd have other things on your mind right now!"

"Like the fact that we're both alive? Believe me, I can't quite bring myself to think about much else," Dusklord admitted. "And because we're both alive, it does sort of make me want to celebrate."

"Later," Lilly said. She shook her head, but there was a smile on her face. "We've got things to do first. Holly and your brother are still down there, right? We should help them out. Make sure the sphere doesn't break before the city gets to it. Get me some damned clothes before other heroes show up."

"I mean, technically Avatar already has-"

"Heroes who would _notice _a naked woman, I mean!"

Before she could go on, Dusklord reached over and kissed her. He felt the heat of her naked body against him, and he held her close for a long time. When they finally broke away, he felt a trickle of heat to his face.

"I missed you," He told her.

"Yeah, well, I suppose I missed you too."

Contrary to popular culture, things do not just end. It's easy to think that adventures can be wrapped up with a neat little bow. You've defeated the bad guy, saved the city, and now everything is right back to where it used to be.

But it's not really that simple in reality. There are always things to pick up, pieces to put back together. Lingering issues that need to be dealt with.

Following her escape from Dogma, Frostfire decided to take a break for the first time in a long while. Her whole life had always been heroing. After all, because her powers could not be turned off, whether she was dressed in her suit or not, she would always be known. It hadn't left her much of a social life outside of what she did. But now at last, she decided to fix that. The things that had happened had tested her and pushed her limits, and she needed time to regain her feet and figure out where she was going to go from there.

Surprisingly, she was offered sanctuary in one place that would never recognise her. Alister, Dusklord's brother, having fought alongside her during their battle against the Enforcers extended an offer to join him in his own world for as long as she wished. Frostfire decided to take him up on it, curious as to what it would be like to go to a place where she could simply be a person rather than a hero.

Alister himself seemed quite surprised when she took him up on the offer. But glad of the company. Over time, the two would grow closer and even enter a relationship. It was an odd one for sure, as both parties felt that they had duties in their own worlds but it seemed to work out for them. Between Holly and Lilly, Alister was convinced to outlaw slavery in his homelands. It was but a single step on a long, hard road, but it was one that had to be taken. Of course, many of the local nobles objected, and many of the slaves had nowhere else to go, but Frostfire and Lilly both were more than happy to wade in and crack some heads if needs be, and Alister had more than enough money to set up homes and new jobs for them. Experts to help them acclimatise to a normal life.

Illegal Slavery continued as one might expect, but Alister opposed it from then on. Frostfire's strongly held opinions rubbed off on him, and he started to become more and more the man he had always wanted to be. No more held in the shadow of his father or his brother, Alister stepped forth and took the crown truly, becoming a king who would forge his own path in the years to come.

Dusklord never quite got around to properly retiring. As one might expect, he was not a man who could easily settle down, and even as the years went on he maintained an informal grip on his previous empire. Though, one never could quite trace it to him. Lilly was content to allow him this much, so long as he pitched in when it really mattered. Indeed, as the years went on, it was not uncommon to see Dusklord come out of retirement whenever something particularly bad happened or help was needed. Over time, he came to be accepted as a sort of champion by many of the people of the city. Never quite a hero, for he was too steeped in history for that. But when it mattered, he was there.

He never did give back the tiger, though.

After the week was over, Lilly elected to continue her relationship with Dusklord. The two had grown much closer, and after what they had been through, it seemed such a shame to end things then and there. Eventually, they moved in together and formed a family. They even had a daughter, who later would have adventures of her own.

As a hero, Lilly's career took a slight hit because of her association with Dusklord. But she was still the second most powerful in the city by far, and she recovered quickly enough. Redwing eventually came to be considered one of the true premier heroes of New Ember City, and a symbol to aspire to for many. She used her connections with Alister to help convince him to outlaw slavery, and spent many years championing the common people of both her home city and Alister's world.

She did eventually come to accept the tiger.

Dark Angel found herself promoted. With Dusklord stepping down, at least officially, someone new had to fill his role in the organisation that he had built. Dark Angel had the respect and knowledge to do it. Though, her lack of an offensive ability did hinder her for a little while, she solved this in typical fashion by hiring her own cadre of loyal guards.

In time, she would become a welcome sight in Dusklord's home, and almost a member of his and Lilly's family. When their daughter was born, Dark Angel took it on herself to help teach her how things really worked, much to Dusklord's horror and Lilly's dismay. Nevertheless, she found herself a welcome figure in family get togethers and someone whom the young girl would grow up seeing as a role model.

Of Henry, Dusklord's subordinate and the one who had gotten Lilly the device to hack the collars as well as passed the message to Avatar, there was little to say. He ended up helping Dark Angel in the new iteration of Dusklord's organisation. A steady job for a more than decent amount of money given his past services. He was able to take a more passive role in things, and worked to help her keep track of the comings and goings of the city. It was, perhaps, not as exciting as his former role. But as far as he was concerned, this was all for the better.

The Lady in Shadow remained trapped for a time. The prism was kept illuminated, and eventually her stolen power faded away. But she was immortal and eternally. She was content to wait. One day, the stone would crack or chip away. The city would lay in ruins. She would have her chance to return. All she had to do was wait. She was _good _at waiting.

Avatar was also good at waiting. That fight was nothing special to him, and he did not bother to truly remember it. He maintained his eternal vigil, hoping that some day there would come one who might replace him and finally grant him rest.

And that was how the story drew to an end. Dogma and the Shadow Lady were defeated, New Ember City was saved. Dogma was killed in action, and would never haunt the city again. It would be nice to say that this happy ending lasted forever, but nothing really does. In a world of heroes, there are always new threats and sometimes, even the mightiest hero is just not fast enough.

But for today, for now, the city was safe.

And this was victory enough.

End.