Epilogue
Katara
Thirty-Five Years Later
"Stop fidgeting, Iroh." I chuckle at my son, who's squirming in his silk coronation robes. "You're thirty three years old. I thought by now you'd stop chafing in your dress clothes."
He smiles warmly at me, making me chuckle again.
"Never, Mother. I've got too much of Uncle Sokka in me."
"That's true, but that isn't what's chafing you today. Iroh, you can tell me anything. What's wrong?" I ask as I straighten the sash on his robes. He sighs.
"The people don't want Dad to step down. They want him on the throne until he can't be anymore. What if I prove them right?" My heart aches in my chest for him, and the pressure he must feel. "Dad ended the hundred year war, helped Uncle Aang rebuild the Air Nation, had a huge hand in starting up and founding Republic City, Supported Granddad and Uncle Sokka by providing steel fro the ice bridge between the North and South Poles, which helped international trade, and-"
"Iroh." I interrupt him. "Does your Dad love you?"
"What? Yeah, of course. I-"
"Is he a good father? A good Fire Lord?"
"Yes! The best."
"Then trust him. He wouldn't step down if you weren't ready. He didn't want to hold onto the power until he died one day and then you have to take over in the midst of your grief." I tell him, not for the first time.
"I know, Mama."
"We're still living in the Palace your first year. Your father remembers being on his own when he became Fire Lord. even in Uncle Iroh tried to visit as often as he could to advise him. He doesn't want you to go through that, so he'll be here to advise you the whole time. And I'll be here to spoil those wonderful Grandchildren you've given me." I smile, Thinking of the children i've had, and the children they've had themselves.
Iroh is the oldest. He's first in line for the throne, and has been groomed for the role since he was a small child. He's strong, courageous, and compassionate. He'll make an excellent Fire Lord.
He married at 18 for love, much to the Fire Sages dismay. He picked the youngest daughter of the Earth King, a nonbending Earth Kingdom Princess he'd met during his diplomatic training. Her name is Joy, and she's brought much of it to our family. In their 15 years of marriage, they've had six children.
Ten months after Iroh was born, we had Lu Ten. Though we dreaded to think about it, we had him trained to be Fire Lord as well in case something happened to Iroh. Thankfully, nothing ever did, and Lu Ten is more than content and happy as commander of the Fire Nation Army, and to all our surprise, he married Mai's oldest daughter. They've been married for 10 years, and have had three children: Two daughters and a son.
Eleven months after Lu Ten, we had our triplets. Kuzon, who's my wild child, and was born first of the three. He takes his duties as Grand Admiral of our Navy very seriously, as well as being a champion duelist, but other than that he's known for his crazy streak. I hope one day he'll settle down, but he seems happy right now so I don't harp on him too much about it
Then there's Ursa. Oh how I wanted to name her Kaya! Zuko did too, but his mother, who had become very close to me as well, died three days before Ursa's birth. It was a horrible stroke in the middle of the night while she slept. Noren woke up next to him the next morning, and she was already gone. It was awful. So three days later, when I went into labor and we were blessed with a little girl, Ursa just seemed right.
She's grown into an amazing Princess Royal. A woman of her people, and has been ever since Azula stepped down from the role when Ursa turned 16 to retire in seclusion in another part of the nation. She healed, but her life was never easy, and she prefers it alone. Ursa rivals each of her brothers in Dueling, is a champion Phoenix horse racer, an eloquent diplomat that Zuko has trusted as his ambassador on multiple occasions. Any time she's not spending with her husband and three children, she's spending with the widows, orphans, and homeless in our nation, providing whatever hope and comfort she can.
Shang is the last of the triplets. He's the most like Uncle Iroh, quiet and reserved but sometimes funny and blunt. Very charismatic, everyone loves him and listens to him. He decided when he was 18 he wanted to be a Fire Sage, and started his training immediately afterwards. We only see him on special occasions now, and I miss him dearly, but I'm proud of him. And I'm glad I get to see him today.
We thought after the triplets we'd be done. To our shock and surprise, seven years after their birth, we had a set of twins. One more son and one more daughter.
Mako, who reminds me more of Sokka than anyone else, grew up to be the Chief of our Air Force. He always has a bad joke ready to go, but is deadly smart and loves his wife, kids, and the people around him with a passion, especially his twin sister: A waterbender we named Kaya. Growing up a water bender in elite Fire Nation circles was hard for her, but she always held her own with grave dignity, and Mako always was there to step in if someone gave her too hard a time. Even so, she always felt more at home when she visited the South Pole every summer. So, it was no surprise to us when she turned 16 she accepted a betrothal necklace from a young man who had courted her ever summer for years. I treasured that last year with her at hime, She's pregnant now with her second child, and i'll be seeing her for the first time in months at the coronation today, and I'm excited beyond words.
"Mom?" Iroh says, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"I'm sorry, what?" I ask, and he chuckles.
"I was going to ask you what you and Dad plan to do after my first year. Then I asked you what you were thinking about." He explains. I smile at him.
"We plan on moving to Ember Island and visiting the Southern Water Tribe more. My father's getting on in years, you know."
"Maybe. But Granddad doesn't know it." He laughs. "He's been retired for a decade and still acts like a warrior chief."
"And he will act like a warrior chief until the day he dies." I laugh, and as I do someone knocks on the door. Zuko steps into the chambers.
"Iroh, it's time." He tells him. Iroh nods and takes a deep breath as Zuko smiles and walks over to me, gently kissing my mouth.
"I'm sorry to retire you, Katara." He jokes. "You've made an excellent Fire Lady."
"And I'm sure Joy will make an even better one." I reply.
"I have a surprise for you." He gently mutters, drawing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb, In the corner of my eye I see Iroh making a gagging gesture to Ursa, who's just walked into the room. She laughs as I roll my eyes.
"The Fire Sages are waiting, Iroh. Let's go." She tells him, and he follows him out of the room.
"So what's this surprise?" I winks at me and guides me out of Iroh's room, and into one of the drawing rooms down the hall. He opens the door and I gasp in delight, seeing my father, daughter and Son in Law, Sokka Yue, and their children: Arnook, Hakoda, and Elska, and their children as well.
"Spirits!" I exclaim and run to give everyone a hug. I haven't seen them in Ages. "I missed all of you so much!"
"We missed you too, Aunt Katara!" Elska laughs as she hugs me.
Yue got pregnant five years after she and Sokka got married. It posed a difficult diplomatic problem at the time: Would the child be the heir to the North or the South? Even if she had more children later, giving the first child to either tribe would make the other feel undercut. The elders argued for months before the problem solved itself. She had twin sons, and no one was exactly sure which was born first because someone (Sokka) moved them around so they weren't sure who was who. They named them Arnook and Hakoda. As they grew up, they spent significant time in the North and South Pole, so both felt like home. Yue's father passed when the twins were twenty two, and it was decided that as he was his namesake anyways, Arnook would be chief in the North and Hakoda would be heir to the South. But Hakoda's having to be patient. My father only stepped down ten years ago, and Sokka's nowhere near ready to retire.
Elska, Sokka and Yue's daughter was born six years after her brothers, and is an adored princess of Both tribes, acting as a liaison and ambassador between them. All three have Yue's snow white hair and dark black and ocean blue eyes, showing the legacy of the woman touched by both the moon and ocean spirits, as do all of their children. They have 7 between the three of them.
Once we've all caught up and said our hellos, we go to our places for the ceremony. There, we have another reunion with Aang and Toph, who came from Republic City.
"It's been a long time since Team Avatar's been together!" Sokka smiles. "Well, almost the whole team."
"We invited Suki." I tell him. "She couldn't get away from Kyoshi. It's her daughter's 21st birthday this weekend, and they decided it's a good occasion for Suki to finally retire and her daughter to take over the warriors. She sends her love, though." I tell them, then we all quiet down as the drums start pounding, indicating the start of the ceremony, and we take our seats.
I silently thank the spirits for my whole family being together for the first time in years. All my children, my dad, Sokka, Yue, and my niece and Nephews. I don't know when this is going to happen again, if ever.
After the ceremony, there's the celebration feast, during which I use the time to catch up with everyone. Soon enough, it's sunset, and then I see the full moon peaking out. As I'm standing on the balcony looking up at it, I feel Zuko's strong arms around my waist.
"Hmmmmm." I him, leaning into him.
"Lets go." He whispers, and I laugh as I follow him to spirits know where, until we get to a ledge where his dragon Druk waits for us.
"Where are we going?" I giggle.
"The Ocean." He answers, and we fly to the coast. I immediately kick off my shoes and stand in the water. "I used to dream about this you know, Back when you were a captive on my ship all those years ago."
"Dream about what?"
"You, standing in the ocean under the moonlight. But you're even more beautiful now than then."
"You flatter me." I say and he closes the gap between us to kiss me, right as the fireworks back in the city go off.
I don't know how we got here, how we went from warring nations all those years ago to this, but I'm so glad we did.
"I love you, Katara." He whispers when he pulls back to breathe, enough passion still between us that we're panting from the kiss. It doesn't matter how we got here, just that we did.
"I love you too, Zuko." I breathe as he folds me into his arms, and we watch the fireworks, celebrating a new generation, one that's only ever known peace.
A/N
I've been working on this for YEARS and I'm so excited finally be done! There were a few times I thought I was finished, it was initially supposed to be a collection of shorts that eventually led to a flowing story after The Southern Raiders, but I decided I wanted it to be more and went back to the start where Katara and Sokka first found Aang in the iceberg. Then I read a couple of capture AUs and loved the idea, so that added a whole arc along with them on the ship and traveling in the desert, plus that scene in the Hot Spring in the cave. I don't remember the name of the fic that I read that in, but if I find it again I'll edit this with the title to give credit to the original fanfic idea. In the end, it all finally came together and after years of brainstorming, writing, erasing and editing it's finally here. This was the first story I ever wrote that when I went back to it later I was still proud of it, and thank you for everyone who stuck through all of it to get to this note. I've already published a PJO fanfic that has a sequel in the works, as well as a Keeper of the Lost Cities one that hasn't been posted yet and I'm toying of the idea of making one for The Odyssey. Hope you enjoyed this, and I hope you'll check those out too when they're posted. God Bless!
-LunaWolf013