To start off, I just want to say that I drew inspiration for this chapter from one of AvatarIsMyLife's stories, "New Life", so I'd like to give her credit. :) I enjoyed writing this chapter, and I'm sure you'll enjoying reading it. Enjoy (like I need to tell you that. :P) and review! :D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show and its characters belong to Mike and Bryan, the brillant geniuses behind one of the greatest cartoon shows in the history of cartoons. Their work is legendary, and I salute them for it.

Losing Everything

"Dad!" called Makima as she ran through the house. "Dad, where are you?" Six-year old Makima had searched all throughout the entire house looking for her father, but to no avail. Deciding to ask for help, she ran to Noma's room, which was right next to hers and was built by both of her parents using their Waterbending shortly after Noma was born, adding on another room to the large house.

In Noma's room, she found her mother and her two-year old brother playfully passing a stream of water back and forth between each other. About six months before, the Avatar's family had discovered that Noma was a Waterbender when the toddler caught hold of part of a water stream that Aang was using to practice. Katara took it upon herself to train her baby son in tiny little steps with his Waterbending, playing small games like this to promote both fun for himself and growth in his bending abilities.

"Mom," breathlessly said Makima, causing her mother to look over at her without losing control of the water stream, "have you seen Dad? I wanted to practice my Waterbending with him since you're busy playing with Noma."

"He's outside, sweetie," replied Katara as she continued to stream the water back and forth between her and Noma, keeping it on course whenever she passed back control to him, making the toddler laugh with glee each time it was his turn. "He told me this morning that he had something to do, and that's when he went outside."

"Hi, Kima!" happily greeted Noma, smiling brightly up at his sister. He hadn't yet perfected saying her name, so he just called her Kima instead of Makima.

Makima smiled down at her baby brother, who she absolutely adored ever since the day he was born, and said, "Hi, baby Noma. Are you having fun with Mommy?"

"Yep!" nodded Noma, eliciting a mirthful chuckle from Katara.

"Thanks for the help, Mom," said Makima as she turned to leave the room. "I love you!" she called over her shoulder as she ran towards the front door.

"I love you too, honey!" affectionately replied Katara as she heard her daughter run out of the house. However, something was bothering her…maybe it had to do with the way Aang was acting earlier that morning. He seemed a bit mournful and distant, a sort of vacant look in his eyes when he told her that he needed to go outside to do something. Katara knew from her experience with her husband that something was bothering him, but he wouldn't tell her unless he felt like it was worth sharing with her. Even with all the painful secrets he had shared with her in the past, there were still some things that he didn't share with her, and it killed her not to be able to help him if he didn't share his woes with her.

As soon as Makima burst out of the house, she looked around at the snow field around their house. Not seeing her father off in the distance practicing his Firebending, she immediately looked to her right and spotted Appa, who was in his usual spot resting by the house. Up on the Sky Bison's head was her father, dressed in a heavy parka, hugging his legs to his chest and staring out at the horizon like a silent sentinel.

Concerned, Makima walked over to Appa, who happily grunted at her approach. "Shh, Appa," she whispered to the massive beast, who calmed at the sound of her voice. She wanted her presence to be unknown to her father until she was right on top of him. She hoisted herself up on Appa's horn, climbing up the fur on his head and peeking over the edge up at her father, who hadn't yet noticed her.

Aang heavily sighed, resting his chin on his knees as he sadly said, "It's still hard to believe that it's all gone, Appa." The Avatar's Animal Guide perked up his head, forlornly groaning to the artic sky, sorrow emanating throughout his furry body. Aang hung his head down, burying his forehead into his knees and looking at his legs, leaving Makima to wonder why her father was acting this way. "I'm a failure…" she heard him mutter, his voice low and ragged with choked grief.

"Dad?" she timidly asked as she popped her head up further, wanting to get his attention. Aang's head immediately snapped up and looked at her with wide eyes, as if he didn't expect her to be there.

"Makima," he surprisingly said, as if she had just dropped out the sky. "What are you doing here?"

Pulling herself up onto Appa's head and scrambling over to her father's side, Makima said, "Well, I was going to ask you if you wanted to practice Waterbending with me, but…" She sat down next to him, awkwardly looking off to her right and playing with the trailing end of her black braid.

"But then you saw me like this," finished Aang, knowing that his little girl was worried by what she had seen. Makima merely nodded, choosing not to make eye contact with her father. Aang lowered his legs until he was sitting cross-legged, turning his head to look back over the vast horizon with mournful and emotional eyes. After many long moments of tense silence, Aang softly asked, "Makima, did your mother ever tell the whole story of who I really am?"

"She's told me that you're the Avatar," answered Makima as she looked back up at Aang. "You're the one who beat the meanie Fire Lord Ozai and ended the Hundred Year War."

Aang hollowly chuckled at his daughter's choice of words to describe his famous foe. "Yes, but did Mom ever tell you that I'm the only person in the entire world who can Airbend?" Appa growled a protest at Aang's statement, who acquiesced him by saying, "Okay, Appa can Airbend too, but I'm the only human who can Airbend." Satisfied, Appa settled himself back into the snow. Aang desolately sighed as he stared out at the snow-covered wasteland, feeling his heart becoming as lifeless and barren as the sight before him.

It took Makima a while to connect the dots, but it all suddenly made sense to her: in all her travels with her family around the world, she had seen the Northern Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. But there were certain places that they never stopped at: the Air Temples. Every time Appa had flown close to one, her father had directed his Animal Guide wide around the structures, avoiding them as if they contained a deadly sickness. Whenever her mother would ask her father what was wrong, he would just skirt around the question, not even making eye contact with any of the Temples.

And there was one thing Makima noticed about all of these Temples: there was no one in them.

Not a soul.

Finally, Makima slowly asked, "Dad…what happened to all of the other Airbenders?" Aang didn't answer for a while, letting all the memories of his people rush back through his mind, remembering the extinct culture that had given birth to him and made him who he was today. He was the last of his kind, the last human to know the sacred art of Airbending before it was to be lost to the world.

After a pregnant pause, Aang began his tale. "It all started one-hundred and twenty-eight years ago…the Fire Nation Avatar before me, Avatar Roku, was best friends with Fire Lord Sozin. However, Fire Lord Sozin wanted to spread the culture of the Fire Nation to the rest of the world. Roku was against Sozin's plan, saying that the four nations had to stay separate from one another. Sozin planned to begin a war with the rest of the world, but Roku was the only thing standing in his way. So he waited, and after many long years, when Roku was trying to save his island home from a volcanic eruption, Sozin came to help his old friend. Roku was hit by toxic gas coming out of the volcano, and Sozin left him to die, knowing that with Roku out of the way, he could launch his war on the world."

Makima gasped out of the sheer horror of Aang's story, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. "How…how could Sozin do something so awful?" she asked with great astonishment. "Roku was his best friend, and he just let him die!" Makima angrily furrowed her eyebrows, feeling rage take hold of her as she stood up and shouted, "How can anyone be so mean?"

"Makima, sweetie," soothingly said Aang, forcing his daughter to look down at him, "please calm down." Makima's furious face softened at her father's pleading eyes, which were gentle and tender but full of unbearable sadness as well.

Makima sighed and relented, quietly saying, "Okay, Dad…" She wordlessly sat down next to her father again, too ashamed to even look at him. "I'm sorry…"

"There's nothing to be sorry about, sweetie," lovingly assured Aang, leaning over and placing an affectionate kiss on her head, making her smile a little as she glanced up at him. Looking back out at the horizon, Aang continued his story. "What Sozin did to my past life was horrible, but it was nothing compared to what he did next…" Aang trailed off, failing to find the courage to continue as he felt a familiar, aching, piercing grief take hold of his heart. Knowing he had to continue for Makima's sake, he said, "I was born into the Air Nomads, and I lived at the Southern Air Temple for most of my life. Things were peaceful and happy for a time, joyful even, but…"

When Aang hadn't said anything for a few minutes, Makima tentatively asked, "But what, Dad?"

"When I was twelve years old," said Aang, "I found out I was the Avatar. The monks told me this before my sixteenth birthday because they felt like war was coming, and I was going to be needed in order to stop it. The only problem was…that was the only thing they saw me as: the Avatar, not Aang." Feeling bitter tears sting his eyes, his voice began to shake as he said, "Only my guardian, Monk Gyatso, saw me for the little boy I was, but even then the other monks were going to send me away to another Temple to train." His voice dropped to almost an imperceptible whisper as he gripped his woolen pants with trembling fingers and said, "So I ran away…and that's how I got frozen in the iceberg."

It all made sense to Makima now as to why her father had been frozen in an iceberg: he had run away from his home. But the way his body was trembling, the way his pained face looked when those tears filled his eyes, she knew that whatever had happened to his people, it was really bad. "What about the other Airbenders?" apprehensively asked Makima, wondering if she was going too far. Seeing her father in such a disturbed and unsettling state scared her, but she just had to know.

"After I ran away," choked out Aang, his tears now flowing down his face like an unrelenting waterfall of agony, "a Comet appeared in the sky. This Comet made Firebenders even stronger, making their flames very powerful and deadly. Using the power of the Comet, Sozin…" Unable to contain the onslaught of grief and maddening sadness any longer, Aang let out a stifled sob and brokenly said, "Sozin and his Firebenders wiped out the Air Temples in order to kill me. He wiped out my people…" He couldn't continue any further, Aang broke down completely, burying his face in his hands as he openly wept.

Makima stared open-mouthed at her father as she felt burning tears assail her own eyes, feeling her heart unbearably pound in her chest as she realized that her father was really the last of his people. All of the Air Nomads, man, woman, and child, perished in the monstrous wake of the inferno that was the Comet, leaving her father to be the last Airbender in the entire world. Feeling an overwhelming need to comfort her father, she carefully wrapped her arms around his shoulders, resting her head against his as her tears flowed, painfully whispering, "I'm sorry, Daddy…I'm so, so, so sorry about what happened." Aang's weeping only increased in its strength, leaving Makima to quietly cry along with him.

Katara walked out of the house at that moment, having put Noma down for his nap, her eyebrow perplexedly raised as she thought she heard someone crying. Looking over to her right, where the sobbing was coming from, she gasped as she saw Aang and Makima crying up on top of Appa. Without a word, she ran over to Appa and scampered up the Bison's head. When she had reached the top, she worriedly asked, "What's going on here?"

Aang and Makima looked over at her, their eyes overflowing with unstoppable tears. Sniffling as she wiped away her tears, Makima raggedly said, "I saw Dad out here, and he looked really sad about something. He told me why he was so sad, and…" Makima couldn't bring herself to say anymore and buried her face in her father's shoulder, crying again as her father held her and tried to comfort her.

"What is she talking about, Aang?" asked Katara, moving in front of her husband.

Taking in a deep, quavering breath, Aang looked up at her and said, "I told her the reason why I was sad was because of what happened to my people. Today's the anniversary of Sozin's Comet, the same day my people were killed…"

Katara's eyes widened, realizing that this was the reason why he had looked so distant earlier that morning. "Oh, Aang, why didn't you tell me?" She moved over to her husband and their child, enveloping the two of them in her loving arms as she said to Aang, "I could have helped comfort you, sweetie."

"It's all my fault…" Aang guiltily murmured, his voice choked with grievous emotions.

"No, it's not, Aang," she assured him, kissing him on the head. "You know that there's nothing you could have done to help them."

Aang shook his head and said, "No, that's not what I meant." Katara drew out of the embrace, keeping him at arm's length as she stared at him with confused eyes. Glancing up at her, he explained. "I'm the only Airbender in the world right now, and yet we haven't had an Airbending child." Makima had somewhat settled in Aang's arms, her crying having died away as Katara was comforting Aang.

Katara looked down at Makima and said, "Honey, why don't you go inside and play? I need to talk to your father about something."

"I'm not leaving Dad," protested Makima as she hugged her father more tightly, not wanting to leave him in his time of mourning.

"Hey," softly said Aang as he looked down at Makima, who stared up at him with questioning silver eyes, "as long as I have Mom around, I'll be fine. Okay?"

Makima was quiet for a few moments, knowing that her father was right. "Okay, Dad." Giving him a kiss on the cheek, she said, "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Makima," smiled Aang, pressing another sweet kiss on Makima's forehead before the child separated herself from her father, giving him one last, longing look before she jumped down off of Appa and headed inside to play.

Once Makima was gone, Katara looked over at Aang and asked, "So the reason why you're upset is because we haven't had an Airbending child yet?"

"Yes," nodded Aang as he looked back over at her, shame pressing down his heart like a leaden weight. "I'm not going to be around forever; the next Avatar will need to know Airbending, but I have no one to teach it to so that they can teach my successor." Looking down at his lap, he heavily added, "I'm failing my people by not continuing on the tradition of Airbending…"

Katara bit her lip as she thought of some way of making her husband happy, a way for him to stop beating himself up about the legacy of his birth bending art. "We could try again tonight…" she meekly murmured, letting the insinuation carry over to her husband's ears.

"What do you mean?" asked Aang, looking over at her with confused eyes.

Pressing herself closer to him, Katara quietly said, "We could try having another child tonight, one who will hopefully inherit your Airbending. If that doesn't happen, we'll keep trying until we succeed. I don't care how painful the process may be for me or how long it'll take; you will have an Airbending child by me before you pass on into your next life."

Aang couldn't help but sweetly smile at her sincere offer, but he merely took her hands in his and kissed her fingers as he said, "That's very kind of you to want to do such a thing, Katara, but I'm not going to place that burden on you. If the Spirits decide to bless us with an Airbending child, they will."

"But I can't stand to see you tear yourself apart like this," protested Katara. "As your wife, it's my duty to both bear and raise our children. It's part of my responsibilities to help you produce a child who will end up teaching your successor Airbending."

"Katara," warmly, but firmly, retorted Aang, "you are much more to me than a means to produce an heir for my Airbending. You are my Forever Girl, my eternal soul mate, and the bright Moon Lily of my heart. When we decide that it's time we have another child in the hope of producing an Airbender, we will. Until then, however, don't speak of this again." He kissed her nose, resting his forehead against hers as he quietly said, "When we make love, I want it to be because you want it, not because you're forcing yourself to."

Katara stared into Aang's handsome eyes for a few moments, softly sighing and closing her eyes when she realized that he was right: their lovemaking was something that was sacred, special, and unique to them, not a mechanism by which the Airbender population could be revitalized. "You're right," she whispered as she opened her eyes. "I shouldn't take that sort of thing and turn it something less than perfect." Smiling just a little, she added, "Besides, every time we do make love is absolutely perfect, and I don't want to ruin that."

"Neither do I," warmly responded Aang. "Neither do I." They stared at each other for a little while, letting only their smiles and shining eyes speak for the love that they held for each other. Finally, Aang sighed and said, "I guess I should go play with Makima. After my story, I'm sure she'll need as much cheering up as I did."

As Aang got up to go, Katara suddenly said, "Wait." When Aang looked back at her, she asked, "Can you promise to not hold that sort of thing in next time? You know how worried I get whenever something's bothering you."

"I promise," assuredly smiled Aang, eliciting a gratified smile from Katara. "I love you, Katara," he said before planting a sweet and chaste kiss on her lips.

"I love you more, Aang," teased Katara as she quickly kissed him back.

"Not as much as I love you," he winked, getting up and jumping off of Appa, throwing a loving smile over his shoulder before he went inside the house. Soon, the sounds of Makima's playful laughter and Aang's merry voice filled the air, making Katara's heart soar with gladness that her little family was whole again.

Katara looked down at her stomach, placing a reverent hand on her midsection and feeling the smooth skin underneath, widely smiling at the thought of another little child growing inside of her womb, a child that she wanted by choice and total consent.