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prelude: too scared to believe
"What do you think they're doing now?" Ty Lee asks.
So far, prison hasn't dimmed the upbeat chime of her voice before. She found common ground with the Kyoshi warriors—despite their history—and even won the favour of several guards. Thriving as best as she could, even here.
Until now.
May can picture her: tucked into the corner of her cell, at the head of her cot, curled up small in a way she never allowed herself to be where people might see. Rolling the end of her braid between her fingers, probably; up and down, worn thin just like her voice.
"Who?" May asks to delay giving a response. She knows exactly who her friend is talking about.
"Zuko. And the Avatar."
Zuko and the Avatar—although she's had over a month to get used to the idea, it still made May's head spin. Still made her angry, that Zuko chose that path over his own safety, and over her. May was in love with his bravery one day and furious at his recklessness the next; and she has never been angrier than today. On the day that Sozin's Comet returns.
Time is up and the chips are down, and they're both stuck here, unable to do anything.
"What do you think they're doing?" Ty Lee repeats.
Getting burned to death, her rational side supplies.
Saving the world, the small shred of hope she didn't dare to feed for fear of having it crushed, insists.
But saying it out loud is out of the question. Although superstitions are Ty Lee's area, not hers, even dwelling on the thought for too long feels like inviting the universe to prove her wrong.
"You really want me to jinx it?" May tries. Her tone falls as far from her usual bored drawl as Ty Lee's did from bubbliness.
"You're right, we shouldn't," Ty Lee says with a hint of a sad smile in her voice.
May wishes she could sit next to her—misery loves company and all that—but the prison is in complete lockdown because of the Comet, even for non-benders like them. They did what they could to help at the Boiling Rock; all they can do now is endure the excruciating wait.
"But I don't regret siding with them," Ty Lee adds.
May turns to her back on the cot, and stares at the too-low steel ceiling. It's too easy to see the sky lit up by the Comet in the red metal. May closes her eyes. The sight of Zuko's surprise on the gondola feels burned to the back of her eyelids.
"I don't regret it either," she admits.
i. disbelief
Somehow, it's the sight of colourful clothes in the Fire Palace that makes it real for Zuko.
After the relieved reunion next to the banged-up airship that Aang, Sokka, Toph and Suki had flown back to the capital, their first task was to send out a ceasefire order to every admiral and general without delay. This took them right to the Royal Hawkery.
The corridor leading to it used to be lined with soldiers. Sensitive documents about troop movements, spy reports, state secrets, and the Fire Lord's family's correspondence all went through The Royal Hawkery; naturally, it had to be guarded at all hours. Right now, though, it's as hauntingly empty as the rest of the Palace.
They all step aside to give Aang some space to firebend the door open, and in doing so, their group stands in the exact same spot where the palace guards used to. A corner where red armour used to be as constant as the walls themselves, suddenly filled with blue, green and yellow.
"Zuko? Is everything okay?" Katara asks.
Zuko is still leaning on her to walk and even to stand. He must have startled without even noticing, alerting her.
"Yeah." He looks at the others, who have all turned to him with concern. "I'm just thinking. Can you believe we did it?"
Their worried looks melt away.
"Nope!"
"Not yet!"
"It feels so impossible, right?"
"Yeah! We kicked their butts so hard it's unbelievable!"
The adrenaline and worry of the night is turning into elated grins and enthusiastic cheers right in front of his eyes.
It's incredible. It's infectious. It's a glimpse of a future that starts today, and it feels like something is blooming inside of Zuko's chest and getting big enough and light enough to catch flight soon.
So this is it. The second time in only a few months that Zuko got what he wanted, but it can't be compared to the bitter disappointment of his first return home. This… this is a victory too impossible to comprehend.
ii. dazed confusion
The day after the Comet, Sokka wakes up briefly disoriented, and already annoyed. He doesn't want to be up yet, thank you very much. It's so early that not even Zuko and Aang and their awful firebenders-rise-with-the-sun-at-the-crack-of-dawn instincts are awake yet. It takes Sokka a moment to even identify the noise that woke him up: the quacking of a turtleduck. Team Avatar had collectively passed out the night before on a bed the size of an average igloo in a room adjacent to the palace garden, which seems to contain turtleducks.
Sokka blinks one eye open.
Correction: their room seems to contain turtleducks.
A whole family of them; they somehow waddled in during the night and are now curiously and loudly investigating the corner of the rug. Sokka weighs the satisfaction of throwing his pillow at the little noisemakers against his chances of going back to sleep without it. Stimulated by this rousing mental calculus, his brain manages to wake up a little more fully.
And promptly remember the events of yesterday.
Namely that the Loser Lord and Azula are locked up, and Zuko managed to issue an order of immediate and complete cessation of hostilities to the entire Fire Nation army (before Katara issued him an order of bedrest for the foreseeable future, to which the ex-prince ex-traitor future-Fire-Lord of ambiguous legal status wisely surrendered).
Sokka grins.
What a time to be alive.
The end of the hundred-year war.
The hundred-year war that they just won.
They won! Their scrappy little team did it!
Who would have thought this less than a year ago? When he and Katara were just out in their canoe to catch some fish, and Aang was just a recently unfrozen goofy kid? When Zuko was still hot on their trail, and they didn't even know Suki and Toph yet, both living their lives in the Earth Kingdom and staying out of the war?
Staying out of the war that they ended yesterday!
Seriously, what a time to be alive.
A turtleduck quacks again. They sound so cute. Why was he angry at them five minutes ago?
Sokka clambers out of bed—is rudely reminded that his leg is still broken, but somehow that barely even registers as an annoyance—and hobbles to the turtleducks to shoo them out of the room before they wake the others up, too. This is met with some indignant quacking, but ultimately the trespassers leave the room and Sokka closes the door behind them.
He turns back to the still comically oversized bed and the five teenagers passed out on it (five teenagers who ended the war!), happy to note that they all seem to be sleeping soundly. He notices a patch of sunlight illuminating the bedside table, inching close to Katara's face. In a handful of minutes, it will probably shine into her eyes—that would definitely wake her up.
Sokka limps over to the window to close the curtains. Before doing so, he stares out at the city—calm, quiet, sleepy in the early morning. There is no doomsday panic from the citizens of the capital, and no singing in the streets either. It feels odd to have neither; it looks too much like a completely regular morning.
He didn't think they could have regular mornings after the war was over. How can the sun rise and the city sleep when they have won?
The only thing that would match Sokka's mood right now would be a worldwide dance party.
Can they throw a worldwide dance party?
He'll have to bring that up with Aang. He'll love it. Plus, organising worldwide dance parties might be a long-forgotten Avatar duty. In the name of keeping balance, or something.
Sokka closes the curtains on the offensively indifferent city, shuffles back to bed, and climbs back under the covers, even though he knows he's too energised to fall back asleep. Sleeping is futile when reality is so much better than dreams.
iii. ugly crying
"Today, this war is finally over!"
Hakoda had been fighting to hear those words his entire life. Every decision he made as a man, as a father, as a chief, was in pursuit of that goal.
Today, this war is finally over.
In front of him, his children are cheering. They had been born into a war-torn world, just like Hakoda himself was. But they will be the first generation in living memory to spend their adult lives in peace.
Kya, my love, I wish you could see this.
This: all nations allowed into the Fire Nation's capital, to celebrate side by side with their citizens as the new Fire Lord gives a speech about ending the war and repairing the world's scars. Something that would have been as impossible last week as one hundred years ago; and now Hakoda is witnessing it with his very eyes.
"A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided," Zuko continues. "But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path, and begin a new era of love and peace."
Hakoda figured he would cry about their victory at some point in the coming days; but he didn't expect it to hit him so suddenly and with such force. He could fight the urge, but he doesn't need or want to. As the crowd cheers, he claps along, but he lets himself cry, loud and undignified and utterly overwhelmed.
It's over. It's finally over.
iv. the overwhelming desire to help
Less than a year ago—after meeting Sokka, Aang and Katara for the first time—Suki decided the Kyoshi warriors couldn't stay closed off from the world on their little island anymore. It felt like hope itself had returned to the world with the Avatar; she couldn't sit back and wait for a kid even younger than her to solve all the world's problems. Not when she could help. Her girls all felt the same way.
Today, she sees that sentiment echoed all around her.
"I've gotta say, it feels much better to let people out of prison than to capture them," Ty Lee, their newest and unlikeliest sister says. She's surveying a row of freed Earth Kingdom captives filing into a demilitarized navy ship with satisfaction. "My aura has never been brighter!"
"I never captured anyone, but I can imagine it's not very rewarding," Suki replies.
The Kyoshi warriors are overseeing the repatriation of war prisoners from the Fire Nation and the colonies. Zuko and Aang began the process, but it's lengthy and slow-going and both boys have about a billion more things on their plate, and they asked her to lead the project. Maybe Suki should have expected to be given a role after the end of the war (she is, after all, a member of what Sokka dubbed Team Avatar), but she still felt honoured. She couldn't have imagined ending up with such a heavy responsibility when she and her sisters decided to leave Kyoshi all those months ago.
Admittedly, their experience in accompanying refugees makes things smoother. But an operation of this scale is beyond what the Kyoshi warriors can handle alone.
Their help came from the unlikeliest place: Fire Nation citizens.
Some have been army deserters or members of underground resistance movements for years. Like Yin, herself freshly liberated from prison, whose years of experience in community organising and familiarity with every nook and cranny of Caldera City is invaluable to the repatriation effort.
"I've been dreaming of this for years," Yin says. "I got caught during a failed jailbreak. We were trying to free war prisoners. I can't believe I get to do it on such a scale now."
But for every hardened resistance fighter, there were ten volunteers who never dared to voice their disagreement with Ozai's regime, but came together as soon as they were free from the fear of repercussion. Ordinary people: bakers who organised community drives to provide the ex-prisoners with food on their way home, accountants and lawyers who shifted through sentences and wrote up release forms, or people with an extra bedroom or two in their house who offered a roof for the liberated who passed through their city on the way home.
"I didn't think the war could end," admits Sumi, a shy, but honest, hardworking girl. She had brought a dozen fresh-baked loaves of bread to one of their first food drives, and stuck around ever since. Her patience and open attitude tended to inspire the prisoners to come to her with their problems, and she always listened with compassion. "And now I feel silly for not believing that it could be done."
"I dreamt of the war ending, but I didn't really believe it either," Yin says. "Sometimes, I wonder if I somehow woke up in a different world."
"I'm surprised that everything is changing so quickly. I think everyone in the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes expected more resistance from the Fire Nation," Suki admits. "It's amazing how many people want to help."
"How could we not?" Sumi asks. "So many of our soldiers were dying, too. And now the Avatar and his friends are making everything so much better—how could we not try to do our part and make their job a little easier?"
There it is again: that sentiment of responsibility and community that Suki has been seeing around herself lately, ever-growing like an avalanche of kindness.
Right now, it feels unstoppable.
v. reevaluation
It feels so much better to travel the Fire Nation without needing to hide. The idea of these Team Avatar visits to cities all over the Fire Nation, or at least the beginnings of it, came from Suki. She was inspired by how many people were volunteering to help with the repatriation of the war prisoners, and they all agreed they needed to direct that energy to where it was needed the most.
But even without those circumstances, Aang is always happy for an excuse to travel. He is a nomad, after all. And this time, he can wear his tattoos proudly, without anyone trying to kill, or capture, or even just boo him when they see him. It's almost like the Fire Nation he remembers from a hundred years ago.
The change is mostly in how people act. The environment still bears the marks of the last hundred years.
Like the giant statue of Ozai where they once escaped from Combustion Man. Aang was a bit preoccupied at the time, but he still felt nervous about the giant statue of the man he was supposed to defeat looming over him.
But this time, with the Fire Lord duel safely in the past, and the ex-Fire Lord in question behind bars, it doesn't feel nearly threatening. It's just an overly large shirtless steel man.
"Last time we were here, this statue seemed so scary," Aang says as he's looking up at the steel monstrosity. "But now it just looks silly."
Zuko follows Aang's line of sight. It must be really weird for him, having giant statues of his dad peppered all throughout the world.
"You have a point," he agrees seriously. "It looks different now that he's gone. Everything does."
"It's like a spell was broken," Aang nods.
"We'll still melt it down, of course."
"What should we make with the steel?"
Zuko hums. "Good question. I suspect some of the war reparations could be in the form of technology—machines, ships, anything we've developed that the other nations don't have but could use. We'll need plenty of steel for that."
Aang grins. "Ozai would probably hate that."
The corner of Zuko's mouth ticks up. "Yeah. He definitely would."
vi. vindication
Sin Lee has been a member of the Palace Guard for years. Her position is held in high regard, but she has been having a harder and harder time fulfilling it. She never complained or resigned, because that would just have her reassigned to the front—and she was grateful, so grateful to have left it behind, she would never return of her own free will—but the conversations she sometimes overheard were hard to swallow.
The Fire Lord, his family, his advisors, his generals; the entire upper circle had no regard for the average man. They threw away lives callously and carelessly, and it always made Sin Lee's blood boil to hear these high-ranking men and women make those kinds of decisions about her brothers and sisters and siblings in arms.
Today, she is standing guard outside of a conference room—the young Fire Lord rarely uses the throne room. He is meeting with the top generals, admirals, the ministers, and even the Fire Sages—all the people who enabled Ozai and the war.
And Fire Lord Zuko is not letting that pass.
"... you have betrayed your country, and the entire world, by pushing it into this senseless war. You have caused the deaths of thousands of good, innocent people, and pushed many more into despair. You are all dismissed from the service of the crown—but if I were you, I wouldn't travel very far from the capital. I expect all of you will receive a court summons very soon. Your actions may have followed the letter of the law, but they were still crimes, and you will have to answer for them as such."
Finally, Sin Lee thinks. Finally, they're getting what they deserve.
vii. disbelief (reprise)
"I can't believe they just asked me that!" Toph complained to Sokka.
The Earth Kingdom ambassadors (because the world apparently has ambassadors now, and Zuko invited them to the Fire Nation for something called preliminary talks, where they basically agree on the terms of the peace treaty before officially agreeing on the terms of the peace treaty) somehow found out her last name. And decided that that must mean she is some kind of important politician. And also decided that she must know what Zuko's real intentions are, and decided to question her about them.
Because, obviously, ending the war and recalling all the troops and sending war prisoners home and everything else Sparky has been doing these past couple of weeks are part of some kind of sinister scheme, or something.
The Earth King should have picked smarter ambassadors. These guys are more like embarassadors.
"You gotta admit," Sokka says, "it feels a bit too good to be true. Things have been going so smoothly since the day we won, sometimes I'm suspicious that I hit my head really hard on those airships and hallucinated all of this."
Alright, fine, Sokka has a point. Toph has wondered on occasion about the same thing. Sometimes, she thinks she must still be at her parents' house, just having a very elaborate dream about finally getting away from them.
"Me too," she admits. "I expected the Loser Lord to try to be more of a problem. Or at least to have more supporters—it seems like everyone in the Fire Nation suddenly wants peace now. Where were those guys for the last hundred years?" Toph shakes her head. "But that's no reason for those stuck-up ambassadors to say that Sparky is lying. And they implied I'm stupid for falling for it!"
"Hmm, maybe that's a good thing."
"A good thing?!"
"Think about it! If everything went the way we wanted it, I would be even more suspicious. At least people are still annoying enough to believe this is real."
Toph huffs. "That's stupid."
"I'm just being optimistic."
"You're never optimistic."
"I know! But ever since defeating the Fire Lord—"
"The Loser Lord!"
"You're right, you're right. Ever since defeating the Loser Lord, it feels like maybe optimism is the new realism."
So it's official. Either Toph is dreaming or the world collectively lost its mind.
epilogue: moving forward
A year ago, there were only two things Katara knew about peace and balance between the nations: Gran-Gran's stories, and her unshakeable belief that the Avatar would return and save the world.
"Katara, are you coming?" Sokka calls out to her.
He's already on the airship, and it looks like the others are climbing aboard as well. Katara is the only one still standing outside, on the lip of the volcano housing the Fire Palace. She stood almost exactly here a few months ago, during the eclipse. So much has changed.
"Just a minute!" she replies.
She can't take her eyes off the city, the harbour, the ocean beyond. This is the last time she will see this shore, any shore, in wartime.
Although the actual fighting stopped weeks ago, it was just a ceasefire. In a minute, she will climb aboard that airship, and they will fly to the Western Air Temple to meet with Chief Arnook and Earth King Kuei. The three of them, along with her dad, Aang and Zuko, will sign the peace treaty to end this war.
Katara touches her mother's necklace.
When that treaty is signed, she, and all the other victims of this war, will finally get to rest in peace.
And as for the living: it will be their job to keep that peace. To guard it always, with everything they have, together.