DISCLAMER: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or anything in this story pertaining to it, it is the property of Viacom and Nickelodean. No profit will or has been made by this story.
All Chapters Will Contain Spoilers
SPOILER ALERT: This chapter details the events of Sozin's Comet, the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"It is impossible to fall out of love.
Love is such a powerful emotion that once it envelopes you it does not depart.
True love is eternal. If you think that you were once in love but fell out of it, then it wasn't love you were in. "
Sozin's Comet's Return
Aang, the last of the Air Nomads and the Avatar defeated The Phoenix King Ozai on the Day of Sozin's Comet. Aang, staying true to his Air Nomad beliefs defeated the Phoenix King without taking life. Aang sought the wisdom of the past Avatars as well as learned from the legendary Lionturtle, a great beast long thought to have been nonexistent.
Upon learning the wisdom of the old masters, Aang gained the ability to remove bending from a bender. During his confrontation with Ozai, Aang unlocked his chakra and was able to go into the Avatar State without denouncing worldly attachment. Upon doing this the Avatar was able to defeat Lord Ozai and take his bending from him.
And so the great tyrant fell.
While the Avatar fought with the Firelord or self proclaimed Phoenix King his companions fought against the Fire Nation's tyranny as well.
Zuko, the Banished Prince alongside Katara of the Southern Water Tribe challenged Firelord Azula. Upon the day of Sozin's Comet, Firelord Ozai denounced the title as Firelord and passed it on to Azula, claiming himself the Phoenix King. The new Firelord Azula began to slowly lose her mind. In her irrational state she challenged her brother Zuko to an Agni Kai.
The two heirs of the Fire Nation began the sacred duel, matched in power. Azula, beginning to become more mentally unstable, shot a strike of lightening at Katara of the Water Tribe. In a desperate attempt to protect his companion, Zuko shielded Katara with his body, absorbing the lightening bolt into his stomach.
Katara, chieftain's daughter and sole waterbender of the Southern Tribe dueled with Firelord Azula of the Fire Nation. Katara managed to defeat the Firelord and proceeded to heal the dying Prince Zuko.
General Iroh, The Dragon of the West, as well as the other members of the White Lotus Society reclaimed the great Earth capitol, Ba Sing Se. The city of Omashu was reclaimed by King Bumi single handedly on the Day of Black Sun.
One year since the Avatar returned, on the day of Sozin's Comet, the 100 Year War came to an end. The Avatar has restored balance and now the world can take its first steps towards peace.
General Iroh passed the throne to Prince Zuko. The Banished Prince Zuko reclaimed the throne as the rightful heir and is now the Firelord of the Fire Nation.
Finally the war is over and an era of peace has begun.
One Year Later
Though the tyranny had ended, the world was far from at peace. At Zuko's coronation, many gladly accepted the new Firelord's declaration of peace, but there was still a sense of bitterness towards the Fire Nation. The resentment and hate the nations held against the Fire Nation brought out rebels, anarchists, and radicals; many believed that the damage done could never be atoned for.
The Fire Nation had stolen a lot from the people of the four nations, and its tyranny completely destroyed the pacifistic Air Nomads. The people of the four nations became hopeless and though the fighting had ceased the scars the war had left kept their hostility alive.
For years black smog engulfed the sky and choked the sun, ash fell in place of snow and fires licked through homes and villages. Dark ships lined once bright shores as raiders and murders stole life and liberty from those once free. The innocence of children was stolen by war paint and demon masks. In the east great cities fell, and in the west entire civilizations ceased to exist. The Fire Nation had plunged the once harmonious world into one of war and of chaos. The world was unbalanced and the fires of war filled the skies with sulfurous ash and smog.
For in the eyes of some, no amount of repentance could ever atone for what the Fire Nation had done to the world.
A young woman with chestnut hair hurried through the emerald halls of the Bei Fong Estate, her soft footfalls ricocheted, piercing the silence. It was long past dusk and the young woman wanted nothing more to relax into her awaiting bed. Small luminescent candles lined the halls, flames flickered and shadows danced. The Estate was gorgeous even in the dark, the marble halls glowed pale jades in the candlelight and deep emeralds in the shadows.
The young woman turned to descend down another hall, still lost in her daydream of sleep, and barely missed colliding head on into another body.
"Oh, excuse me! I'm so sorry!" Quickly regaining herself, the girl bowed to the figure before her.
"Katara?" A cheerful young voice responded. "Don't worry about it, no harm done."
Before Katara stood a young boy, her dear friend and close companion, Aang.
"Oh hello Aang,"
"Hi Katara, so what are you doing up so late?"
"I was just on my way to my room actually; I've had a rather long day." In the past year
Katara has become an ambassador for the Southern Water Tribes. Due to her heritage alone she was the obvious choice, but that paired with her strong leadership abilities, the people of the Southern Tribe felt there was no one better suited as their representation. Katara loved her people and would do anything and everything for them.
Aang looked up into Katara's eyes. "Well I guess I should let you head off to bed, I wouldn't want to keep you up."
"Thanks Aang." Katara smiled tiredly.
"Goodnight." Blushing slightly the young Airbender reached up and gently pecked Katara on the lips.
Katara closed her eyes to the kiss, but didn't kiss him back. As of she had been feeling as though something was missing. Recently she got no pleasure, no satisfaction from Aang's kisses, they were dull and there was no spark.
After the two had said their final "goodnights" Katara continued to her room, now feeling guilty and confused.
Katara entered a well furnished room. A soft double bed sat in the center, upon it lay an elegant quilt embroidered with the Bei Fong crest, the winged boar. On each side of the bed sat a small wooden end table, each with simple, yet elegant gold detailing along the edges. The floor was covered by a luscious earth toned rug; intricate designs were skillfully weaved into it and stretched to the edges.
The windows, Katara's favorite aspect of this room faced the east and gave way to the most glorious view of the Earth Kingdom Katara had ever seen. The sun would rise above the hazy hills in the distance, and the city seemed to glow in the wake of the day.
Ever since that one morning when Katara first witnessed the beauty of the city at dawn, she, like those of the Fire Nation, began to rise with the sun. So each morn, she was greeted with the near ephemeral beauty of the Earth Kingdom.
Once Katara had finished changing and preparing herself for sleep she crossed the room towards her sanctuary. Exhausted by the days trials, the young Waterbender collapsed onto her bed.
As tired as she was for some reason Katara could not seem to fall asleep. As time went by she became more frustrated.
"What am I doing?" Katara exhaled in frustration. Turning she grabbed her pillow and buried her face in it. 'Sleep' she mentally chanted in her head, but try as she might, she could not fall into slumber. "This is ridiculous."
Katara reluctantly dragged herself out of bed and grabbed her robe as she headed for the door.
Zuko stared at the dying embers in the fireplace across from his desk; this had been his third night in a row without sleep. Before the young Firelord sat endless piles of paperwork, everything from pardons to peace treaties, and all waiting to be sorted and signed by the Firelord. Zuko rubbed his temple; he couldn't go on like this.
He was seventeen, how did they expect him to run an entire nation? Not to mention a nation that had reined tyranny across the globe for the last hundred years? He had to deal with refugees, pardoned soldiers, anarchists, and not to mention the Fire Nation's noblemen breathing down his throat everyday. As if the post war effort wasn't distracting and time consuming enough, his nation's nobles were shoving marriage into the mix; demanding he take a bride to produce an heir.
Marriage was the farthest from his mind at that moment; he had to stabilize his nation and its connections with the other nations before he could worry about producing an heir.
Sighing, Zuko sunk his head into his arms, the lack of sleep was beginning to affect him, but work needed to be done. The Firelord drearily reached for the next page in his endless paperwork.
As Zuko began reading a document regarding trade regulations about cabbages 'why cabbages of all things?' he realized just what his dear uncle had gotten him into. Though he barely believed it, he couldn't help but wonder if maybe revoking the crown and giving passing it to Zuko was his uncle's way of getting revenge; the saddistic old fool.
Zuko quickly dismissed the thought and got back to his endless paperwork.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
The Bei Fong Estate was one of few in the Earth Kingdom that was privaledged enough to have a hot spring. Katara needed to relax, to let her body recuperated, and she hoped she would find this in a hot, relaxing bath. Katara needed to be with her element; water was soothing, calm and healing, and that's exactly what Katara needed. The young waterbender pulled back the screen and stepped into the bath house.
"Katara?" a voice called through the steam "Is that you?"
"Suki?" Katara bent the steam away from her self, and leaning against the side of the spring was the Kyoshi Warrior. "What are you doing here? It's late isn't"
Katara began to ease herself into the water next to Suki. Upon contact the water swirled around her and its warmth began to relax her tense and fatigued body.
"Late, it's almost dawn."
Water splashed everywhere as Katara lost her footing; disbelief in her eyes. "Almost dawn...What!?" Katara gasped "How can it be almost dawn, I haven't even had a wink of sleep yet!"
"You haven't slept? Are you okay, something on your mind?" Suki turned her entire body to face Katara, her cheerful mood turned to that of concern.
"No…yes…oh I don't know…" Katara began. "I guess I've just been thinking a lot about my relationship with Aang. It's like there's something missing. We're never together, I mean, I understand that he's the Avatar and that we all need to mend our world, but we hardly ever see each other."
"Well, he's here now, maybe today if you guys aren't completely swamped with post war issues you could spend sometime together?"
"I know, I bumped into him tonight on my way to my room, but even when we are together, I just feel so…empty. There's no spark, and the more I think about it the more confused and guilty I become."
"Why are you guilty?" Suki placed a comforting hand on Katara's shoulder.
Katara looked away. "I've just been thinking recently. I'm guilty and almost ashamed to admit that I think that maybe I don't love him." Katara paused. "and the more I think about it, I'm beginning to believe that I never did."
"Katara, when you were little, did you ever dream about your husband, imagine him up in your head?"
Katara shot a confused glance at her friend.
"What?" Katara asked, slightly thrown off by the sudden change of subject. 'Where did that come from?'
"Just answer the question." Suki pressed.
"Yea, I guess, doesn't everyone at some point?"
Ignoring the question Suki continued. "Do you remember what you imagined; what you wanted?"
Katara thought for a moment, a memory from her childhood and her visit to Aunt Wu flashed through her mind. "Yea, I guess I do, actually, now that you mention it I remember when I was little my friend Kita and I actually sat down and made a list" Katara smiled at the memory.
"Then I have one question for you…" Suki stared straight into Katara's eyes, her tone turned very serious. "Does Aang fit the list?"
Katara turned away, closing her eyes. "Not in the slightest."
Thanks so much to everyone who has begun reading this!! More to come soon! Thanks guys, much love!!
Ephemeral Butterfly
btw, My beta reader decided that he was no longer willing to beta for me, so I am in need of one...If anyone is interested send me an email, the link is on my page.