Epilogue

Ember Island, 4 years later.

The young woman sat in the middle of her room, blank and painted sheets surrounding her. Many were in the traditional black ink, but she had managed to find things that made colour, a stray berry here, and a mineral there. She didn't really want to buy the coloured paint. The shades were too artificial and besides, they cost a lot.

She had to meet the deadline for the gallery just down the beach. They loved her pieces. They provided a glimpse into the world of the Avatar that people didn't really get to see.

Her portraits of past Avatars have really been racking up praise. But the one they wanted the most was missing from her collection. The one of herself; Avatar Tiana.

She had provided plenty of Korra, Aang, Roku, Yangchen and the other Avatars. She had a lot on Yena, whom she painted as Dark Avatar and Light Avatar. Her dead sister was the model of most of her paintings, in stark black and white, with a hint of colour, or full colour. Her favourite was one of her close-ups. Yena had a perfect smile on her face, her ebony hair shining. The only colour in the painting was in her eyes. Tiana had managed to make them a glaring silver to draw attention.

Technically, she did paint herself, just not portraits, or anything revealing. Just far away paintings, mainly of the Battle of the Avatars.

She wrapped up the dried paintings, tying the smooth white cylinders with scraps of ribbon and elastic. She shoved them into an open bag, the cylinders peeping out.

"Tiana! Get your lazy butt out of that house before I barge in and get you out myself! Don't make me count!"

Tiana just chuckled, as she gathered the remaining rolls that couldn't fit into her bag. She opened the door with her ink-stained hands and looked up to see her friend, Kaede, looking very unimpressed, dark hair wound tightly in a braid. The red mask tattoo that dominated her face made her green eyes even brighter. Her bow was slung carelessly across her chest, her arrows peeking out from behind her shoulder.

"I thought you were supposed to be my "protector, my constant companion" and all that," she said, putting a hand on her hip.

"Well, that can be revoked if you are late for your own showing, Avatar," she snapped, her green eyes sparkling with mirth.

Even after four years, Tiana felt herself withdraw at the mention at her formal title. She still didn't feel like she deserved it. She still felt that the Spirit of Light and Peace made a mistake, by telling her that she was in fact the Light Avatar. Tiana thought it was just chance that Yena was the one that hosted Vaatu. It could have easily been her.

"You got to suck it up, T. It's who you are."

"No. I have neglected my duties, just like I promised not to."

"Well, you can't change the past now. Let's go."

Tiana followed Kaede down the rocky path from her cottage, to the beach. The locals and tourists were all out together, playing kuai ball on the beach, enjoying the warmth.

Even though the sunlight sank into her skin, the warmth didn't reach her heart.

She still remembered that night, when she had recently settled onto Ember Island, after returning from the Imperial City of the Fire Nation. Dark spirits had attacked a village a bit far off the vacationing homes, where the middle class lived. The people sent out pleas on the radio for the Avatar to come, to save them all. And all Tiana did was look out the window, hearing the dark spirits hiss and scream as they attacked. She didn't move. She didn't even help the relief effort. For what the inhabitants knew, the Avatar was secluded somewhere, in the middle of nowhere, where no radio could reach.

Not even when the murmurings of an army of benders teaming up with the dark spirits attacking made her leave her home and intervene. She had no will to. She could muster no reason for her to help really. Tiana was too reminded of how her possessed sister took over the city with Neo Equalists and dark spirits. By the screeches of people and spirits sounding outside her window that night on Ember Island, she froze into an unmovable statue.

She had gotten better after that. With the help of Kaede and some determination, she did. She helped when it was needed. It still couldn't make up for her mistake though. She knew she would regret it for the rest of her life.

"So how are the arrows coming?" Tiana asked as they walked on the beach. Her sandaled feet sank into the hot sand. She felt every burning granule on her feet but luckily, they toughened up since her stay here.

"Good. There is just one that doesn't work."

"Which one?"

"The Pacify Arrow. We have a suspicion that energy needs to be put inside the arrows for them to work. Someone that has a connection to spirits."

"So you're saying that the Avatar could only work the Pacify Arrow," Tiana stated, stopping there.

Kaede sighed. "Yeah. We are going to try with some airbenders first, to make sure. Some of them are coming today to check them out."

Tiana nodded. She wiped her clammy hands on her wraparound skirt, the gauzy fabric not absorbing the sweat that suddenly sprouted.

"Okay, well you can go meet up with them, while I go to the studio."

"Alright," Kaede shrugged, studying her with her grass green eyes. She knew something was off.

Kaede walked off, her long brown braid swinging with her walk. Tiana blinked away the sudden vision that caught her:

A petite girl, her back to Tiana, her dark brown braid that blew in the harsh wind around her. Arrows rustled in her quiver across her back. The curved wood of her bow shone in the descending moonlight. When she turned, Tiana found the familiar red mask tattoo of a Yuyan Archer. And her eyes were glowing the blue-white of the Avatar State.

When Tiana and Kaede had met for the first time, the vision had hit Tiana full force, making her faint right then and giving her a nasty migraine, accompanied with a bleeding nose. This motivated to keep Kaede close to her. As the next Avatar looked exactly like her. Her granddaughter would be the next Avatar.

Tiana pondered the Pacify Arrow when she found the gallery, a faded blue cottage on stilts. Its outer appearance was very misconceiving once one entered the inside. Inside, the gallery was of fine taste: spotless white walls, a colossal chandelier casting rainbows onto everything, crisp black furniture. It was the kind of place you would be scared to make dirty.

The walls were empty, except for some waiting canvas hooks, beckoning her to put up her paintings for everyone to see.

"Avatar Tiana! Wonderful! So you are here to deliver your paintings?" the gallery owner asked. He was a short thin man, his back bent into a strong curve. His gnarled, veined hand grasped the head of his wood cane. His short fingernails were red and black crescents and his simple robe was stained as well, with the same colours. He must have just been painting.

He eagerly plucked the rolls from Tiana's bag, rolling them open. His dark eyes burned with delight. "Oh, these are just great! Just wonderful!"

He hung each of them up on the wall hooks, gazing at each one in turn.

"Oh, you still haven't done your portrait yet, dear?"

Tiana sighed, running a hand through her shining white hair. Her silver-flecked black eyes looked a little lost. She stared down the floor, her hands in tight fists.

"I was not able to paint it, Mr. Yang. I can paint everyone, anyone else. Just not myself."

"Well, thank god someone else has brought in a portrait then!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands.

"Someone else.." Tiana muttered before gasping. The other artist had entered the room with their painting and it was none other than Lee.

He had not changed much in the four years that they were apart. He still had the same shock of red-brown hair, the intense brown eyes, and the tall muscular build. The difference was how he held himself and the fact that his hands now carried the blue arrows of an Air Master.

"Lee," she breathed. Her heart fluttered like a panicked bird in her chest, the beat of it thundering in her ears. She still remembered her promise to him, to not neglect the duties of the Avatar. She wondered how he would react if he knew that she did, in an extremely bad way.

Lee did not respond at first. He followed Mr. Yang to where he directed, and hung up the painting. Tiana followed tentatively, afraid of what she might see. She stopped in her tracks when she laid eyes on it.

It was her in the City Hall, when she faced off against Yena. Her white clothing was flapping in the wind, along with her hair. A white mask dangled from her hand, the other raised almost to reach out to Tiana, fingers splayed. The earth around her was raised, jagged pieces of rock sharp and dangerous. What amazed her though was the heartbroken look on her own painted face. Everything about the painting suggested that she was a dangerous person, one not to be reckoned with. But it was the facial expression that halted that thought.

"It's beautiful," she murmured.

Mr. Yang looked between the two of them. "I will go check the back room," he said feebily and then made a hasty exit.

Tiana and Lee looked at each other in weighted silence.

"So, you're an Air Master. Congratulations," she said quietly. All of her instincts told her to run, to hide. But she had to face this. She ran away years ago and now she had to own up to it.

"Thank you," he said formally. "It didn't take long only because I knew all the exercises anyway. Turned out that Jinora knew all along and passed on that knowledge to her siblings."

"Good for you," she answered. There was silence again.

"Tiana?"

"Yes?"

Lee's face was set. She couldn't really read his emotions or body language. She didn't know what to expect. For him to start yelling at her for leaving? For abandoning her duties as Avatar? Or just to tell her goodbye?

Tiana knew she couldn't handle any of those options. She broke her own heart when she left him at the Air Temple in Republic City four years ago. Maybe this time, he would break it.

In the heavy silence, Lee took a step towards her, large hand claiming her chin, and lifting her lips to his. Tiana felt the spark of recognition deep in her chest, as she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.

"We have a lot to catch up on," he whispered against her lips.

"We do," she breathed.

Hand in hand, they left the art gallery as the sun winked its yellow light through the passing clouds.

And like the cycles of the seasons, the Avatar Cycle begins anew…

with Amaya.

So this is the end of Avatar: the Legend of the Twins. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please give feedback!