Never Take Life Seriously: No One Makes it Out Alive Anyway
Scarlet Rose
"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character... Would you slow down? Or speed up?" – Chuck Palahniuk
There were many times that he could've died. Many times when he should've. But somehow, the Avatar couldn't think of a time for death more suitable than the one at that very moment.
He thought he should've died in that storm over a hundred years ago, lost to the crashing waves.
He thought he should've died on Zuko's ship countless times. Before the Avatar State saved him.
He thought he should've died at the truly final battle, finally facing Ozai with his small force.
He thought he should've died when Katara wanted to stay in the Fire Nation. To rebuild she had said, but he knew she wanted to keep the new Fire Lord out of trouble. Or cause it, he wasn't sure.
He thought he should've died when he realized that Katara no longer wanted to return from the Fire Nation. Every excuse was weaker and the land of her mother's killers held new meaning for her. A lover.
Even then he did not die of a broken heart. He could not, for the last chakra had taken away his "earthly attachment" and took away his chance to die with his heart.
For many years he did not die; for many years he spent his time rebuilding and keeping peace with the world. They needed him and he would not abandon them again.
He thought his death would come before his friends, if only because he couldn't imagine life without them. But one by one they fell: to injury, to epidemic and sickness, to money. Until there were none left but him.
For the longest time he had wondered if being the Avatar was worth his pain. Then, as he grew old and a gray beard covered the old smile lines around his mouth, he thought of something he hadn't before. The new Avatar. He would be the new Avatar's mentor, and then he could rest, knowing that his work would continue. It was then he knew that the world needed to be rebuild so that the new Avatar would not grow up in a land of hatred. It would be born in the Water Tribe, and his heart panged in his old chest.
The Avatar contemplated, not for the first time, suicide. He was old, and that or sickness, or ambush by rebels would take him soon. In the Fire Nation suicide was honorable, in the Air Temples it was looked down upon. He wouldn't be the first to do suicide, as an Avatar. Many had lived for a hundred years, and couldn't stand staying alive too long while everyone they knew passed on. Kyoshi was one of the few who lasted for many hundred years.
He thought he should've died by his own hand. He did not.
The Avatar could not leave his spirit guide, and his spirit guide could not leave without him. He did not die then, for he could not leave so many things undone.
But after a few months, of things become balanced and whole in the world, he saw the coming of his death in Appa's graying face. His destiny was done.
The last airbending Avatar left no children, but those of the world and those of his friend's children. He left no stone unturned and swept away the defiant war-mongering rebels from the face of the earth, ocean, and sky. He did not find any other airbenders, and did not take false hope that an airbender may take another Avatar form one day. He was the last, and like some things that all lasts have in common, he, Appa, and Momo faded away into story and legend.
He thought he should've died when his human body took its last breath. But still he lived on through the newest Avatar, a girl named Karin to non-bending parents that traveled from the Northern Water Tribe to their sister South to rebuild.
The Avatar was quick to discover that no one ever truly died, and that even though the Spirit World was distant, he did not tire to return to the soil to see his newest student and the children of his friend's children. Souls, he found, had destinies that change with the times, but they are always familiar faces. Familiar faces were what he found in the Spirit World, and they made him proud to say that he had used all of his energy and life before passing on. He was proud to face his dearest friends, young and old, a wrinkled old man with many accomplishments on his shoulders.
Avatar Aang felt himself finally at peace and knew that he would not have the peace had he not taken the longest road to get to his final destination.