Katara held her head in her hands. Sokka, her big brother, was dead. Dead, gone with the wind. Killed in a tragic accident at sea. Killed by a sea spirit.
Aang lay on their bed, wondering how to help her. Everyone was devastated, Suki more than anyone. Suki had just been engaged to Sokka when it happened. Toph, harboring her own secret crush, was angry at herself for not telling Sokka how she felt before he died.
Katara doused the fire, laying next to Aang. He held her close, thinking how awful this must be for her. Just imagine...
Meanwhile, Toph was crying. Crying out of hurt, but anger more than anything else. Anger at Sokka for giving up, anger at herself for denying her feelings, anger at...just everything, really. She dropped her photo of them in the fire, watching sadly as it burned, burned with the memory, burned with the hatred at herself.
Suki had taken the biggest blow. Sokka's last words...His last promise...She stared at the sapphire ring on her finger, remembering Sokka's nervous smile when he proposed to her. She remembered his last promise. "Suki, I'll be back. I promise." He'd wanted to see Katara give birth, though at the month after they'd gotten the news, she'd given birth to Raya Linn, a healthy baby girl.
Aang held Katara close, wondering what they'd tell their daughter when she was old enough...How could they explain it? Sokka's disappearance alone should have tipped them off that something was wrong, because Sokka wrote home almost every day. He sat up to get some air. Just to get his mind off things...Katara, Sokka, Raya, their family...
It'd been years since they'd heard from Hakota, too. If he was alive, which Aang had no doubt he was, how could they tell him?