Wow, I just realized I totally forgot to finish up this story, I'm so sorry for the delay! This has been done for a while, so I hope you guys like it. This one is from Katara's perspective and will complete the fic. I sort of explored a slightly different possibility with the Avatar cycle: since generally babies aren't just born, they have to develop, I know that the soul is supposed to jump to this new life, but that would probably mean at conception, rather than birth, but it depends on a lot of things like your own personal philosophies, beliefs, etc. So I've just sort of jumped that and wondered if the Avatar just gets sicker for the last 9 months while their essence slowly grows into it's new form. So I went with that. And since Katara can sense essence/aura...well...
Disclaimer: I don't own either series nor the characters, etc, I'm just kind of in love with Korra.
I hope you guys enjoy it!
Katara felt it the moment she put her hand on Senna's, Tonraq's wife, swollen belly. The aura was too familiar…it was one life slowly but surely passing onto the next, and it pained her as much as it gave her joy to feel it. She felt it growing in strength, instead of weakening, as it had been for weeks now, in another body, another lifetime. A power unmatched by anyone in the entire world, and how fitting, that it was starting where it would probably end.
Of course, there were other traits. The baby's body was healthy; strong, like Tonraq's. Built of muscle and heavy tissue, she already had a strong physical connection to world: it was palpable. She could already feel how different this one would be, from her husband. Very different indeed! She wasn't sure when the young baby was due, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. There were some things that were better left simply to time, and this was one of them.
She agreed to read Tonraq and Senna's baby's aura because Tonraq had been nothing but an excellent leader in the Southern Water Tribe, and she appreciated anyone who could and did wholeheartedly accept the culture of the South. He was a great chief, and she had no doubt Sokka would have liked him. She also wanted to give them the good news: bender or nonbender, she knew it didn't matter to either of them what their child was…they had just so desperately wanted a child. A quiet life, she believed Senna had once told her, with a child who they could raise together, and wouldn't that be nice?
Oh, but they had bitten off way more than they could chew. What a hellraiser they had in store for them! She wondered if Senna could feel it, too. After all, this strength was growing inside of her, every day, but Katara also knew that she was far more experienced with feeling this…power. With feeling this familiarity.
She wanted to be happy, of course, and on some level, she was. It was nice to know that the cycle was continuing, though she'd never had any doubts about it doing so. It was nice to know that the next one was so strong, already! How lucky the world was that its next leader already felt like she could move mountains, if she wanted to! How amazing it was to feel this life beginning anew, so familiar yet so unique, so different. It was nice to know, it was nice to feel, and as a world leader, as a mentor, and as a master and teacher, Katara was excited.
But she was only human, and as such, she could not set aside her grief. She could not separate it, and so like darkness with spirits, it contaminated the joy she could feel coming from Tonraq and Senna. It contaminated the joy that came from the parts of her that were a world leader, a mentor, a master and a teacher. It pushed those sides of her down, because inside she was still Katara, wife of Avatar Aang for decades. For a lifetime. And soon…soon she would be the widow of Avatar Aang. Soon…though she knew it was coming (Aang was after all, technically, 100 years older than her), that didn't make it any easier. And she knew it wasn't rational, to feel that pang of hurt and blame towards this new life, growing and stealing the life of her husband. That wasn't it at all…Her husband would have had to have already been dying for this new life to be growing.
That didn't stop the iota of resentment that welled in her with her fears, her doubts, her sorrows and her grief. And that resentment was not constructive, she knew. It was very unlike her, but she had grown quite accustomed to Aang. Letting him go would not be an easy feat, but it would be one she would face, when the time came.
And when the time came, she would be happy to watch the cycle begin anew. She would be happy to watch the new one grow, grow into her power and grow into herself and realize her full potential. Find her own path, her own destiny. She would be happy for Senna and Tonraq, and sympathetic to them, for she understood, on many levels, what it's like to love an Avatar. And it's not easy. She would be the rock, the support that they would need while they adjusted. And she would teach the new Avatar, of course. Aang would trust no one else with the education of his successor in waterbending. When the time came, she would open her arms and welcome the new Avatar, because change is what life, water, and balance, were all about, and she knew that. Because part of her was a teacher, a mentor, a master, and a world leader, and when the time arrived, she would be ready.
But she wasn't ready. And so she couldn't stop the pain as it tore through her heart when she felt that aura anew. And she couldn't hide the pain as she brought herself to say the only words she could muster: "She's powerful" Because she was. She was so powerful. She was so full of light. And it pained Katara even more to know that her husband would die for this light, that this light was his.
But it wasn't his, not really, and she knew it. It was the light of every Avatar that had ever and would ever exist, and she knew that, deep down. However, she felt only pain when she finally looked up from Senna's belly and smiled, tight-lipped, at Tonraq, unable to muster sincerity in her eyes. And she only felt pain when she left them, happily hugging.
She would be the person the new Avatar needed her to be, and who the old Avatar would want her to be. But for now, and perhaps, for a while, she would grieve.
And, thus ends the story! Let me know what you thought, if you'd like, it's up to you. Either way I hope it was a relatively smooth read for you guys! :)