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Chapter 33

Aftermath

Aang could see the confliction running through Zuko. Not in the sense that he understood what his friend must be thinking, Aang could actually see the swirling wave of opposing feelings mixing through the multiple hues of color that were present in Zuko. The colors were beginning to fade though. Everything was taking on its natural, earthly appearance again. Though he wanted to speak out and reassure his confused friend, Aang was slowly becoming aware that his body was done for the moment. With tremendous effort he finally managed to say something.

"Zuko," he forced out. "Help."

Zuko's eyes turned from the fallen Fire Lord in an instant. Aang was smiling weakly, and his body was noticeably shaking. He rushed to Aang's side and helped him regain his balance.

"What's wrong?"

"It hurts," Aang replied. "Everything hurts."

That was the last thing Aang could remember before everything faded once again.

Aang found himself in what was quickly becoming a familiar setting. There was nothing for as far as he could see as he floated serenely in empty space.

"I have to wonder what thinking of this situation as 'normal' says about me," Aang thought aloud. "Probably nothing good."

"Or perhaps something miraculous," a deep resonating voice replied from everywhere.

Through the nothingness a form began to take shape. It was large at first, with its massive glowing eyes bringing comfort to Aang. As it drew nearer, the shadow of the lion turtle began to shrink to a less imposing size until it came to stand beside Aang in the shape of a man. A man that Aang was familiar with.

"Mr. Brandt!" he exclaimed.

"Hello, my young friend," Mr. Brandt smiled. "I see you have succeeded. Masterfully done, I must say."

"What are you doing here?" Aang could not help but ask.

"Oh, I'm sure you've figured it out by now," Mr. Brandt replied, eyes glowing golden.

"He was you? I mean, you were him all along?"

"I am a small extension of the Spirits, yes," he answered. "It was my duty in your world to find you, Aang."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"You must understand, my friend," Mr. Brandt began as he floated around Aang's form. "I have been searching many worlds for you for a very long time. Each time I find you, you are different, but always the same at your core. Finding you inevitably leads to putting you in situations that someone with your heart and soul should not have to suffer through. Every time I am sent to find you, I know that I am to put one of the purest souls into a heartless, hopeless situation. I could hardly bare it when I found you and knew you would have to suffer through this."

Aang merely stared at Mr. Brandt for a few moments as he collected his thoughts. It was true that he had suffered through much leading up to the confrontation with Ozai, but there were so many reasons that he needed to do it.

"It wasn't easy," Aang admitted. "It was terrifying, but I think I wouldn't have had it any other way. The burden that I took on was something that I wouldn't wish on anyone else. Don't forget though, I may have had to shoulder it, but I was never alone. My friends were with me."

"That is true," Mr. Brandt smiled. "You are blessed with true friends. Friends that love you as unconditionally as you love them."

"My friends!" Aang suddenly yelled. "Are they okay? What's happening right now?"

"Peace, Aang," Mr. Brandt said calmly. "Your friends are safe. Zuko and the others were able to leave the battlefield unhindered thanks to your other friends. They are all resting and recovering safely now, and awaiting your return."

Aang breathed a sigh of relief as his hand instinctively moved to his heart. Everything was going to be fine. It was over. It was all finely over. He could go home, and everyone would be safe. He could go back to school and see all of his friends again. Then a thought occurred to him.

"I'm not going to see you again." It was not a question.

"My dear boy, my duty is to call upon you when you are needed," Mr. Brandt replied. "I am very fond of you, Aang. So fond in fact that it is my deepest wish that we never meet again."

"So then what comes next?" Aang asked sadly.

"What you deserve, my friend. You get to live your life. They are waiting for you, Aang."

Mr. Brandt's figure began to fade into the surrounding emptiness as it seemed to close in on Aang. A calmness overtook him then as his eyes closed and he fell through the void. Peacefully he drifted on as thoughts and dreams and memories passed through his mind, all culminating into one thought, one person. Aang took one more deep breath and slowly opened his eyes.

He was in a hospital of course. He did not even need to allow his eyes to adjust to the lighting of the room to know that. Where else would Zuko have taken him? The room was quiet with the exception of the steadiness of his and one other's breathing. He could feel the weight of her head at his side and he smiled.

Toph had begun to shift the moment that his eyes had opened. Aang could feel her waking up as she reached a tired hand out for his. For just a moment he thought that she had not realized he was awake, but that thought was dismissed as he felt her crawl up onto the hospital bed. Wordlessly she took up residence next to him as she wrapped her arms around any part of him she could reach and held him gently.

"Good morning to you too," he said as he placed his head on hers. "That was a good sleep."

"You died. I stood there and felt you die, Aang," she said. It was then that Aang noticed the tears on her face.

"Tried to, but it didn't take," Aang replied.

"That's not funny."

And it wasn't. Not to her. Not to him. The idea of ever leaving her behind to face that kind of loss again broke Aang's heart.

"Do you really think that I would ever let that happen?" Aang asked. "Nothing is ever going to stop me from getting back to you, Toph. Not even death. I promise."

Toph answered his promise by holding him tighter. If anyone she knew could keep a promise like that, she believed it was him. That did not mean, however, that she was willing to test the theory a second time.

"What happened after I passed out?" Aang asked.

"Which time?"

"I thought that wasn't funny," Aang teased.

"It's not," Toph replied. "Angel and the others escorted us out after Zuko brought you down from the roof. No one was really willing to fight after everything that had happened. Katara patched us all up a bit and we came straight here to the hospital afterwards. It's been two days."

"What about Ozai?" Aang asked. His concern for the Fire Lord was not limited to the man himself, but also to whatever Zuko may have done.

"Strangest thing anyone could have imagined," Toph told him. "After the fight he kind of just disappeared without a trace. Then yesterday we saw him on the news. He turned himself in, Aang. He confessed to being the Fire Lord and turned himself over to Commissioner Jeong Jeong. What happened on that roof?"

"I'll try to explain later," Aang promised, "maybe someday after I have a better understanding of it myself."

The two lay there for a while, content in each other's arms. Toph listened to the sound of Aang's as though it were a song she never wanted to take off of replay. Aang himself just lay content with the knowledge that everything had been resolved rather nicely.

"Wait a second," Aang said suddenly. "When we got here to the hospital, we had to have explained out injuries. What did we tell the doctors? We didn't tell them about the fight, did we?"

"No," Toph replied from her place on his chest. "We just used our fallback-cover-all-situations excuse."

"Oh. 'Sokka's fault.'"

It was not funny. Not in the slightest. For some reason though, they began to laugh. At first they were quiet chuckles, but soon they erupted into riotous laughter that had the young couple in tears. The noise quickly brought in those that had been outside including their parents. Joyous and relieved laughter filled the room when they saw Aang awake and smiling.

Yes, everything was going to be alright.

After a grueling battle and spending two days unconscious in the hospital, Aang was more than ready to get back to his life as a regular person. He was cleared of the hospital after a few short tests and was back in school the very next day. It was amazing what a good two days of rest could do for a person's energy and mood.

Ty Lee had already informed Aang that Mr. Brandt had left the school during their time preparing. Aang was not surprised to hear the news. He was saddened by it, but not surprised. His only response to hearing it was to reach for the medallion that his teacher had given him.

"You're going to take it easy, Twinkle Toes," Toph ordered as the car pulled into the school parking lot. "No crazy anything today and let Ty Lee know if you need help."

"Promise," Aang said, crossing his heart. "I'll be fine, Toph."

"I know," she smiled. "Considering how well you handled Ozai and then my dad, your first day back should be nothing."

"Not cool, by the way," Aang told her. "You could have told me your parents knew we'd eloped before letting your dad torture me with unanswerable questions for an hour."

"And you could have used your brain and realized that neither of us have taken our rings off since we got married," Toph grinned with a punch to his arm.

"I thought it was funny," Ty Lee smiled.

"Yeah, so did everyone else," Aang smirked. "Why do you all have to pick on me?"

"Because it's fun. And you act cute when you're flustered." Ty Lee and Aang both stared at Toph. "What? I'm not allowed to say that you're cute?"

"No," Aang said. "You've just never said anything like that before."

"Well, stop making me feel and act so girly and maybe things like that wouldn't happen!" she blushed. "Now both of you get out of the car or we're all going to be late!"

The two friends complied, but not before Aang snuck in a goodbye kiss.

"I love you, Toph."

"Love you too, Twinkle Toes."

Aang and Ty Lee made their way to the cafeteria breakfast line while Aang greeted the familiar faces he had not seen in a while. After picking their way through the crowd, Ty Lee led Aang to their usual table where Mai, Ria and the others all waited for them. Aang waved in response to Ria's greeting and only realized his mistake when Ria's eyes opened wide and her jaw hung open.

"Please don't!" Aang said quickly as he sat down and put his hand under the table.

"Lemmeseelemmeseelemmesee!" Ria squealed as she grabbed his hand and stared at the ring on it.

"Is that a . . ?" Smellerbee began.

"Guys, please," Aang said. "I just got back, please don't draw any attention to me. I just want to take it easy for today."

"We can do that," The Duke smirked. "Can't we, Pipsqueak?"

Pipsqueak smiled and nodded before raising his voice.

"Hey everyone, Aang actually did get married this time!"

The entire cafeteria seemed to converge on Aang in that moment. He could not make sense of anything that anyone was saying, and he felt himself getting pulled in multiple directions. It was not until Mai and Ty Lee began crowd control that he could actually begin to move freely again. That was when Kaze made his opinion known as he pushed to the front of the group.

"You actually married her?" he asked with a scoff.

"Yes, I did," Aang said with a proud smile.

"Man, wish I could marry a rich chick and skip school whenever I wanted."

Aang had a thought then. A thought that he knew he should not share. It was inappropriate and very unlike him. If he was making Toph act differently through their relationship, the same could definitely be said about her making him different as well. So, in the spirit of Toph, Aang shared his thought.

"What can I say, Kaze?" he smiled in a self-satisfied way. "That honeymoon was really exhausting."

A/N: So a lot has happened in the last 2 years since I updated this. First, I became a father. Second, I joined the military and embarked on an 8 month training regimine for my job. Lastly, I've been deployed to the middle east and have found myself (finally) with enough time to begin writing again. It is my earnest hope that I will post the final chapters of this series by the end of January at the absolute latest. Thank you to everyone out there who is still reading this and for all of you over the last two years that have joined us and sent me those annoyingly motivational messages to please continue :) Your voices and encouragement were heard and appreciated.