1Epilogue
Historians had many theories about what caused the nearly two weeks when no one died. Some believed it was chance. Others thought the records were wrong and that of course people had died. Only a few knew the true story. Katara and Sokka arrived in Ba Sing Se less than a week after it ended, as Appa had met their boat midway. Fire Lord Zuko had already begun the journey before death returned and arrived within a day of them.
There they found Iroh and a grieving Toph. The friends sat together, and even the stoic Fire Lord cried. However, that night, as they all fell into an exhausted slumber, Katara had another dream. In this one, she saw Aang and the woman from her last dream in a small cottage on a mountain. Outside were flying bison and lemurs. As Katara watched, the woman's face turned and she saw that her face was normal now. Her blue eyes stared into Aang's grey eyes as they held each other.
When Katara woke, she felt more peaceful. She told her friends of the dream. Iroh smiled gently and mumbled something about Koh losing in the end.
After the funeral procession, a massive affair that brought mourners from across all four nations, the friends readied themselves to return home.
"Iroh, can I ask you a question?" Katara said slowly, peeking into his office on the day of their departure.
"Of course my dear. Come in." He replied, his voice sad.
"When will we know who the new Avatar is? He or she will be born soon right? At one of the poles?"
Iroh sighed, and laid his forehead lightly on his folded hands. "I'm afraid there will be no more Avatars."
Katara stilled, her eyes wide.
"Aang did not die. He left this world. He passed through the gateway at the End."
"But why would he do that?" Her voice was louder than she expected, and tears rolled down her face. "He's the Avatar! We needed him! Someone else should have gone."
Iroh shook his head slowly. "Aang would disagree with you. He did not believe the world needed an Avatar anymore. He watched you and your friends rebuild the world while he mourned the loss of his childhood and knew that the world was in good hands."
Katara felt a sob wrench from her throat. "But what if there's another war? Who will maintain balance?"
Iroh took her hand gently and squeezed it. "Then we need good men and women like you and your friends to step up. Aang defeated my brother to end the war, but he never would have made it that far without you."
Katara thought of that conversation many times over the next several years. As she taught Sokka's daughter to waterbend and traveled the world healing the sick, she remembered what the old general had said. They were the ones keeping balance. The world of the Avatar had ended forever when the Air Nomads fell. Aang had been kept alive by the spirits to restore the world to a new balance between the three remaining nations. Now it was their turn to maintain balance.
Author's Note:
My dear readers, I'm sure many of you are upset with the ending to this story. In the annals of fanfiction, far more stories exist where the Air Nomads are restored and the line of Avatars continues unbroken. However, I felt this story also needed to be written. This was the story of a boy who awoke into a world that had survived without him for a century, a world where everyone and everything he'd known had been destroyed. In his desperation to maintain a belief that was a last remnant of a lost culture, he threw the world out of balance. Only by sacrificing everything and facing his own shortcomings could he return that balance.
I hope you take comfort in his final defeat of Koh and in Katara's dreams. I don't know what happens after the End any more than other humans, but I choose to believe, as Gandalf does, that across the sea lies a peaceful world of white shores and green trees where the weary of the world find rest. Here, Aang and Ummi found peace together. And perhaps, at the End of all Things, they will be reunited with their loved ones again.
Thank you for reading.