Zuko.

Fire lord to our nation for seventy years.

You were our fair and just leader, and friend to us all.

Our liberator, who freed and united the world.

You were father of Mayko, father of Azuta, husband of Mai, now passed. Grandfather of Nazumo, Kusaki, Kyorei, of Sashu, and grandfather of Zuko.

We lay you to rest.

And as was your dying wish, you are succeeded by your eldest daughter, Mayko.

Mayko did not bother to try and contain the tears. Even as they crowned her, she refused to wipe her eyes. When she stood up, she heard the sobbing of her sister, and of her sister's daughters, and the quiet crying of her own son. The nation cried together - to lose a great leader was to lose a father and friend, every citizen knew it. Mayko went to hold her son, who buried his face in her dress. Her husband, Kota, held her silently. He was an airbender, and son of Avatar Aang and his wife, Katara. Their fathers had been good friends, and Mayko and Kota had fallen in love the moment they saw each other. Their marriage had been not only a proclamation of their love, but it had marked the beginning of a new political era. The water tribes of the North and South Pole had freely joined the Free Nations - which is what the Fire Nation changed its name to when Avatar Aang declared that the air nomads were now officially part of the Fire Nation. Their son, Zuko, was an airbender - they had named him after Mayko's father, who had been nothing but honored…

Azuta clutched her daughters, sobbing copiously. She knew it had been his time to go, but it is still hard to lose a father - especially a father like Zuko. Her daughters knew this, and they hugged their mother back, because they had loved their Grandfather Zuko too, and their father, Vura, held them all. Azuta took his hand, and he kissed her forehead lovingly. Vura was an earthbender – after all, his mother was Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world. Three of Vura's four brothers were also earthbenders, but the youngest, Ryuu, was a firebender like their father, Sujin. Only one of Azuta and Vura's daughters, Nazumo, was an earthbender – Sashu, Kusaki, and Kyorei were all firebenders, like Azuta. Vura and Azuta had been friends since they were barely a year old, and that friendship turned into a love beyond anything else. When they married, the Earth Kingdom joined the Free Nations – and the Free Nations changed its name to the Four Nations. Each nation had agreed to a peace treaty, and lived now in harmony. Azuta turned to hold her sister, congratulate her, and share in her grief.

…Toph saw all this, in a sense. She heard it, that much was true – how could anyone not hear the deafening cries of the crowd? And she heard what they said about Zuko, too. It was true, yes, but he was more than that, wasn't he? He was a boy. He was a man. He was a person. She felt Zuko's daughters go to their families, and she felt her own son comforting his wife.

Katara and Aang's son was holding Zuko's other daughter, and Sokka and Suki's sons and daughters stood with their families.

She saw this, this nation Zuko and Aang had created, together, and she felt, somehow, that she had been a part of this. She may not have been the one to come up with the plans, or even carry them out, but they had needed her, hadn't they?

And so, more than seventy years after she met her friends, she stood there, realizing she was the last one left…

With a glance toward her sons, and towards her son's wife, and their daughters, she smiled.

Because she hadn't only helped in creating a nation.

She had helped in creating a family