AN: It's over folks! Day 7 of Zutara Week 2020! Consider this an epilogue of sorts.

Rebirth

And all along, I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more . . .

- Christina Perri

Zuko doesn't know how to live without her.

Without Katara, his world has lost an entire dimension of color and emotion, and he feels thirteen once again. Like a part of him has died and scarred over. Like he's been banished from the only home he's ever known. Like his soul is a ship wandering at sea, chasing the fragments of a forgotten dream.

No, Zuko has no idea how to live for himself after she's gone, so he lives for others instead.

Zuko lives for his surviving friends, for his people, and for his daughters. He raises his children with love. He guides his nation with wisdom. He keeps the world at peace with his constant efforts. When the Avatar is found once again, this time a young waterbender, Zuko takes it upon himself to be her guiding light, the same way Iroh once was for him. In Korra, he sees a little bit of everyone he lost. He sees Suki's ferocity, Aang's playfulness, Iroh's kindness.

Most of all, Korra reminds him of Katara so much, in her compassion and her sheer stubbornness and her beautiful smile.

Korra becomes like a third daughter to him.

With Avatar Aang gone, it's up to Zuko and Sokka and Toph to keep the world going straight while Korra grows up, and they do. The three of them get to work, restructuring the world into something that can withstand the test of time, something not separate but whole.

They reshape their respective nations from the inside for decades, transforming them into democracies and erasing the lines that divide peoples, until finally, in his old age, Zuko is able to look upon a world united and free of war. At sixty-eight, he sits as a guest at the first assembly of the United Nations, and he thinks Katara would be proud.

Years later, when Zuko takes his last breath, he is surrounded by his loving family. Even so, he still feels lonely.

In his last moments, as his vision fades to black, Zuko sees her blue eyes.

He smiles. "Hi, Katara."

. . .

The first time, he doesn't recognize her.

He's a young refugee from the Archipelago, here in Ba Sing Se looking for work to support his sick sister and his aging mother. She's practically nobility, the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur from the North. She left her home against her father's will to study medicine at the University.

They meet in a coffeeshop where he works.

He doesn't recognize her, but she smiles and says thank you when he makes her order exactly. Her watch is broken so she asks the time, he answers with a joke and a teasing smile.

She's in a hurry, but for some reason she likes the warm sound of this barista's voice, so she keeps talking to him. He delays her for thirty seconds.

Those thirty seconds save her life.

A huge bomb goes off in the street, along with dozens all around the city.

The world that Avatar Korra and her friends left behind may be a peaceful world, but it is by no means a perfect one. There is still inequality everywhere, and where there is inequality, conflict is sure to follow. The tensions that have torn the Fire Archipelago apart in recent decades have long been festering in Ba Sing Se as well. Today is the day those tensions explode, quite literally.

When they realize what's happening, she runs into the street to help save people with her waterbending, and he runs after her. They find themselves moving together like clockwork, putting out fires, lifting rubble, saving lives.

As they work, they encounter a very young and very frantic Avatar Wukong racing through the streets.

The young earthbender takes one look at them and recruits them into helping him defend the city from radical terrorists who want to destroy all the world's governments. The two agree. Soon the son of dragons and the daughter of the moon find themselves caught up in a war once again.

Over the years when he travels with her and the Avatar, he cannot help but shake the feeling that this isn't the first time, that he's done this before.

Then by chance he's separated from her. He ends up with the rebels, and he realizes that the enemies are not what he assumed. They are poor, struggling, tired, like him. They just want a chance in life, and they are fed up with the capitalist system that is designed to exploit them. When he understands, he tries to help their efforts.

She thinks he's fallen to evil, and he thinks she would never understand how it feels to be caught in the cruel jaws of poverty.

But the rebels take a darker turn: they want to kill the Avatar permanently, just as the Red Lotus once attempted to kill Avatar Korra, and he cannot let that happen. So he turns sides once again, running back to her, to warn her and the Avatar about what's coming.

The two reunite. She realizes she loves him, but she doesn't know how to tell him, and there's no time. They help Avatar Wukong defend the city that has become their home, desperately trying to stop the civil war in their streets. They bring peace between the two sides, but at a high cost. This time, it's him who dies first. She confesses her feelings as he dies in her arms.

This, too, seems familiar. Death feels like an old friend when it comes to claim him.

But the most familiar feeling of all is her eyes.

Her eyes are a brilliant blue.

. . .

The second time, he greets her with a smile.

They're both kids living in the same neighborhood, and their mothers are close friends. They grow up together. It's fun and messy and not all the memories are happy, but they share so many years together as children. They make a group of lifelong friends, they fall in love, they break up.

Years pass too quickly, and the peaceful world they live in is upended by politics and hatred and culture. Though they split up and walk opposite roads, they don't forget each other.

When they reunite, they're spies on opposite sides of an invisible war.

They fight and cheat and claw against each other, but over the course of events both of them come to the conclusion that the war does not exist and that the world is being ruled by an invisible hand. The Hand has built a huge network of contacts. The world's political and military organizations are all secretly under their command, and all the fighting is a distraction. War is business, and the entire world is being milked like a moose-cow.

When an organization is formed to rebel and overthrow the Hand, they're the ones on the front lines.

He fights back to back with her, and with their old friends. Along the way they fall in love again, but they'll never be together in a world as dangerous as this, so they brush their feelings aside.

Over decades they overthrow the invisible Hand, and the world is free from a tyranny it never even knew existed. But the leader of the Hand is clever, and he escapes while spinning lies to gather public support. The monster needs to be put down. So they volunteer for the most dangerous mission of their lives.

They walk right into a trap.

Of course, they finish the mission, but the cost is high. This time she dies first.

He watches the light fading from her eyes and he thinks he'll be chasing that light for the rest of eternity. He doesn't know how right he is.

. . .

By the third time, he recognizes her on sight.

By the fourth, he asks her whether they've met before.

By the fifth, he wonders how many past lives they must have shared to feel such familiarity.

The cycle continues, over and over. Two best friends on opposite sides of a war that divides their people. Every time, they fall in love. Every time, they end the war and bring peace to the world. Every time, the cost of victory is the same: one of them dies trying.

. . .

At the end of the millennium, all the spirits gather for the Great Consensus.

The spirits discuss many things, from how much humanity has changed to the future of the world.

"And what about those two?" asks Koh the Face Stealer.

Wan Shi Tong nods. "Those two. They are quite the anomaly. I recall that they go as far back as Oma and Shu, perhaps even further."

"If they keep this up they will transcend to the Spirit World," adds Koh. "Like the Dragon of the West did not too long ago."

Other spirits voice their concern. The spirits are anxious whenever anything defies the natural laws of the universe.

New human souls are being formed from nothingness every day, but old human souls are reincarnated until they find peace in this world. Most souls endure a few cycles of rebirth until they find peace and salvation in one of their lives, which finally ends their cycle of reincarnation. Very few souls take more than seven cycles to find peace.

The Avatar is one of them, and she is present at the Great Consensus. She is eternal. She is not quite human. She is an exception. But those two souls, they are completely human. Why, then, have they gone through so many thousands of years of reincarnation?

"They are special," sighs the Avatar Spirit. "I've encountered them many times in my past lives."

"Why do they not find peace?" questions Wan Shi Tong. "It has been thousands of years!"

In the abstract sky of the Spirit World, Agni speaks.

"They have found peace."

The Great Consensus erupts into surprise. Agni rarely ever speaks.

"Impossible," says Wan Shi Tong. "They remain trapped in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. How could they possibly be at peace?"

Tui and La circle around each other, eternal light and absolute darkness. Tui suddenly stops circling and rises to her true mortal form—Yue.

Princess Yue smiles. "I've watched those two for a long time. They were my good friends, long ago. Agni is right, they have found peace, but not in the way other souls do. There is peace in the eternal dance that La and I are trapped in. We circle each other forever, but we do not tire, because we both have everything we need in the other. I believe they are the same way."

"Tui is right," says the Avatar Spirit. "The daughter of the moon and the son of dragons have danced around each other for as long as my memory serves. Perhaps they will continue to do so until everything physical fades away, and then they will join us here."

. . .

When Zuko wakes again, he feels free.

Emptiness fills him. An endless joy seems to echo in his soul.

He looks around at the perfect Ember Island coastline before him. The sand is cool, and gentle waves tickle his feet. This beach was home to the best moments in his life. Now it is the last place he will ever see.

The stars shine faintly above, and the world is on the edge of darkness and light, the line between night and day. He can see the sun halfway below the horizon, painting one side of the sky in red and pink and gold. The moon shines bright and full on the other side, illuminating the darkness like a silver flame. Zuko can't tell whether it's morning or evening. A feeling of timelessness fills the air.

He looks to his side. Her eyes are brilliant and blue as always.

Zuko grins. "I've missed you."

Katara smiles back. "What are you talking about? I've been by your side the whole time!"

"I know," he says, hugging her to his chest. "But I still missed you, Katara."

She hugs him back and buries her head in his shoulder. "I missed you too, Zuko."

They both turn and look around when they hear noise coming from the beach house behind them. Aang's high voice rises over the commotion at the dinner party, followed by Toph's loud grumble and Sokka's laughter. He can hear snippets of other voices too, old friends and family, their daughters, Uncle Iroh.

"Where are we?" asks Zuko.

Katara laughs, a familiar sound that makes his soul sing with happiness.

She holds his gaze for a long moment, then smiles and leans in. They kiss for the first and millionth time, and Zuko finally understands. They've danced around each other for all eternity. Now their souls are finally at rest, but they shared a vow with each other long ago. They'll both keep it forever.

"If I had to guess, I think we're in paradise," says Katara. "But I don't think it really matters."

Zuko smiles in agreement. "As long as you're with me, any place is paradise."

They sit together on the beach, watching the moonrise fade to dawn.

. . .

/

AN: It's been a fun ride, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed it! I would love to write more Zutara moments, but I think 25 chapters is more than enough for this fic. I never even thought I'd write so many chapters. I know the ending to the story was abrupt but I had to wrap it up somehow. Thanks to all my readers for encouraging me and for staying with me!

If you liked my work, I just started a new Blutara fic! Check it out!

Zutara Week 2020 is over, but as Mae Whitman once said, every week is Zutara Week, baby ;)