Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: We know the Fire Nation at least definitely has Schools, and the North has training centres for healers, so I'd expect they definitely exist in more urban, developed areas. In more rural areas... maybe not so much.

Zigzagdoublezee: Thank you! And Ozai does have that sense of implacable, relentless ruthlessness about him.

Erikbassey: Yes, they are. Ozai has drawn the sword against the entire world entirely for the sake of a long dead ancestor's delusion and his own ego, while Azula is desperate for his approval.

As Always, Please Review!

The bison dipped lower and broke through the clouds, and for the first time Yue caught sight of the South Pole.

Unlike her own home city, which was smaller having been built into a comparatively narrow section of cliff face, the southern capital had been built on a large flat plain of ice, which meant it stretched for miles. Wide thoroughfares were flanked by orderly white buildings, made of ice and wood, with smaller winding streets connecting them. Docks were established where the ice met the sea, and what looked like hundreds of ships were moored there, including a few especially large ones, which were painted a strange white colour. Walls made of ice stretched around the rest of the city, enclosing it and protecting its inhabitants from an attack from inland.

"It's beautiful," Yue said appreciatively.

At the centre of the city, a large building stood, with a blue and white dome rising high above the skyline. Sokka pointed towards it.

"That's the Palace!" He called. Rinzen whooped and pointed Gembul towards it. His enthusiasm was infectious. For months, ever since Yue had found out that she was the Avatar and her home had been destroyed, this had been her goal. There had been several times where she had thought that she wasn't going to make it. But now here she was, on the far side of the world and with the city of her sister tribe stretching out beneath her.

Sokka and Katara were both grinning madly next to her.

"We made it!" Katara said happily. Yue smiled back, happy for her but thinking of her own home.

As they flew lower, their shadow passed over people in the street below, who took notice and began to look up; Yue noted their curious stares. They presumably didn't know who they were looking at, but they still waved all the same.

Eventually, Gembul touched down in front of the Palace, and they began to dismount the bison; for the first time in months, Yue felt the crunch of snow and ice under her feet. Suddenly, she felt home again, even though geographically she was about as far away from it as it was possible to be.

Their arrival had drawn a crowd, and soon guards were rushing forwards. They hadn't even lowered their weapons, though, before they had stopped short, recognising two of the bison's passengers.

"Prince Sokka! Princess Katara! You're home!" One of the guards exclaimed. "I thought..."

"I'm happy to see you too," Katara told him happily.

"We heard about Chief Hakoda," another guard spoke up. Sokka whirled on him sharply.

"You did?" He questioned. "What did you hear?"

"That he vanished on the night the North Pole was attacked. Nobody has made contact with him."

"Oh," Sokka deflated, disappointed. "Well, I kind of already knew that."

"Where's mum?" Katara asked urgently.

The guard simply turned and pointed to the upper floor of the Palace."

"The Chief-Regent is in her study," he said. "With her mother and the Waterbending Master."

That definitely earned Yue's attention. That was the man, at least she assumed it would be a man, she was here to see!

At length the guard turned to her.

"Princess," he said. "I'm sorry, I've been remiss. My name is Tulok. I'm the Head of Palace Security. And you are Princess Yue of the North."

He smiled at her.

"And, apparently, the Avatar. My congratulations."

"Thank you," Yue told him, smiling back.

"Hello!" Rinzen materialised next to her. "My name is Rinzen, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

"A pleasure," the head of security told him. Then he turned his attention back to Yue.

"We were all outraged when we heard of the attack on the North Pole," he said. "And we were all relieved when we heard that you had escaped."

Yue raised a fine white eyebrow at that.

"Who told you that?"

Just then, the door to the palace opened, and a figure stepped out into the sunlight. Yue's attention shifted away from the conversation she was in and she stopped dead in shock. Surely that wasn't possible?

For coming down the steps, like a ghost from the past, was Master Pakku.

Tulok smirked.

"He did."

"Princess," Pakku bowed.

"you're the waterbending master? What are you doing here?" Yue demanded. "You were- you were-"

"I was fighting a combustion bender," Pakku supplied.

"I thought you were dead!"

"I was in my element," Pakku had a look on his face that could almost have been mistaken for a smug grin. "He was not."

"So how are you here?"

"When it became obvious that the North had fallen, I did the only thing I could," Pakku said. "I found as many survivors as I could, took a ship the Firebenders hadn't managed to burn and left. Then I came here, to help the South escape our fate."

Some might have called that cowardice, but Yue could not blame the man. He was more use to her alive, free, and in the South Pole than he was dead or in a Fire Nation prison. And, after all, she had run away too.

"How did you get here first?" She asked.

"I assume you got sidetracked," Pakku answered easily. Then he smiled, a rare sight.

"I'm glad you escaped, Princess," he said.

"And I'm glad you got out too," Yue returned the sentiment.

Just then, the doors slammed open again. This time, a horn was blown as two more figures emerged from the palace. One of them was an old woman, with hair as white as Yue's and a kind face. The other was younger, and her hair was darker. She wore the ornate blue robes, decorated with intricate wavy patterns and edged with white furs, of a Chief of the Water Tribe, and wore around her neck a heavy medallion as a symbol of her rank. Yue had seen her father wear similar outfits as part of his role as Chief of the North.

Chief-Regent Kya was obviously trying to look regal and dignified as she exited the building, but that only lasted for as long as it took her to find her children among the crowd that had gathered outside.

Which meant it took about two seconds for her to shout their names and start rushing down the steps towards them.

"Sokka! Katara!" She called, reaching level ground as her children ran to meet her and throwing herself at them. They barely had time to brace themselves before they were engulfed in the fiercest hug that Yue had ever seen.

"I thought I would never see you again!" She told them. The tears flowed, the crowd cheered, and Yue found herself a little overcome with the emotion of it all.

Sokka and Katara were home at last.