Epilogue – Victory?
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For all intents and purposes, we have won…
That was what Iroh had said and Zuko was not sure if he could believe what his uncle had said. The Black Riders were no more although he still heard some rumors about a superhero with the power of invisibility defending the Dragon Flats Borough; the rest of them, like their leader, the Dark One, had simply vanished.
Zuko was not sure what to make of it but something told him to stay away from the Borough; he was sure the Riders blamed the Blue Spirit for what happened. Mai was… well, Mai; still pretending that she did not know about the Blue Spirit and Zuko did the same, pretending that he did not know of Stealth though Mai, unlike him, had hung her mask.
Ty Lee was as bubbly as ever.
Azula had struck out on her own, no longer with the trio or anyone from Team Avatar in her missions, now fueled with vigor unlike any other; it was like she was trying to exterminate crime overnight, doubling her effort to clear the streets of Republic City, pulling more weight to compensate for the ones left by the absence of the Riders, or, more specifically, the Dark One. The Phoenix had become a feared figure among the criminals, with conduct bordering on antihero, testing the limits of the law to the max.
Zuko never confronted her about the Dark One. Zuko was sure Azula was the only one who knew of the Dark One's secret identity and the big brother in him knew that Azula would carry the secret to the grave. The big brother in him also felt for his little sister.
Azula had a heart, he knew. He always knew though, at times, he refused to acknowledge it. It made things easier between them; contempt, suspicion, competition are like grease in the gears of their brother-sister relationship. And if Zuko noticed the change in Azula's blue flame, now imbued with a golden core, he did not let it show.
Even Katara worried about her sometimes. She often called Zuko to check on Azula, still oblivious that Zuko knew of her and the… Gaang's nightly activities. Seriously, with Aang and Sokka calling each other by names…
Things would never be the same again, Zuko accepted that fact. He stood up and tugged on his dark leather jacket, nodding goodbye to Ikem's headstone, silently promising that he would continue to look after Korra and the others. Agni, how he wished he had never taken up the mask.
For all intents and purposes, they had won.
But, the Blue Spirit's fight was not over yet.
…oh, it was not over.