Fire Lord Zuko stood on his balcony once more, staring at the crescent-shaped moon, not speaking.
"Zuko!" his wife Mai called as she entered the bedroom. She ran out to the balcony and stood next to him. "I just heard the news. I'm so sorry."
The news she was referring to was the grisly murder of Ozai, which had been discovered hours prior. The killer was nowhere to be found.
Zuko did not respond.
"Are you going to be ok?" she asked. Zuko nodded weakly. "Please talk to me."
Zuko's mouth slowly opened. "...He told me Mai...he actually told me" was all he said. "What?" his wife asked.
"He told me what I wanted to know. He told me what I needed to know to protect our son. He told me the truth about my mother. He told me...and I thanked him. I didn't know what I was doing but it just felt...natural. Like something a son would normally say to his father. I had something to thank him for. I felt something in that moment...not love...but something! But now...it doesn't matter...he's gone...forever, along with any chance of..." he trailed off and stopped as silent tears slid from his eyes.
"Oh Zuko I am so sorry" Mai said as she embraced him. Zuko held tightly onto her and nuzzled his head on her shoulder, seeking whatever comfort that could be found.
"You know Aang said something the other day that got to me" Zuko said, holding back the urge to sob.
"What did he say?" asked Mai.
"He said I loved Azula" Zuko said. "...When he said I just dismissed it as ridiculous...but now that my father is dead and all I can think of is the few good times I've had with him...now I remember those summer days on Ember Island when we would all play on the beach and smile and laugh. I remember Azula and me playing tag and my father putting his arm around me. He was right; I love them Mai. They were my family. I miss them. There's nothing I can do about though; they're gone...for good."
"Zuko I'm so sorry" Mai said again. "I know that they had problems, but I know...deep down, somewhere inside of them they cared about you otherwise those days on Ember Island would have never happened."
"Why did it have to end Mai?" Zuko asked dejectedly. "Why couldn't it have always been like it was back on Ember Island, when we all loved each other and were happy? Why did it have to change?!"
"I wish I could answer that Zuko" Mai said understandingly. "Sometimes things change, even when it would be better for them not to."
"My father, my sister, my mother" Zuko began, when he suddenly remembered his older cousin who before he went of to war was like an older brother to Zuko who showed him Firebending forms and helped him get out of trouble, "my cousin, they're all gone. My uncle's the only family I have left."
"Well you do have the family you made for yourself" Mai reminded.
"Dada" a voice from below them said. The toddler Lu Ten crawled curiously at his parents' legs. Zuko knelt down and spoke to his son. "Hi there little guy" he said, a meek smile forming.
Lu Ten reach out and touched his father's face. "He looks just like his dad" Mai said smipoli.
"With one big difference" Zuko said with his grin widening. His finger softly touched Lu Ten's left eye. "You've never had a scare there little guy, and you'll never have to."
He picked up Lu Ten and held him in his arms.
Just then a servant walked in, holding the baby Ursa. "Fire Lady Mai" she said. "Ursa has woken from her nap." Mai took her daughter in her arms and the servant departed.
The baby began cooing happily.
"That's my little girl" said Zuko, his tears finally stagnating. He then looked to his son as his inquisitive arms reached for the sky and then to his wife's smiling face.
"Thank you" he said. "I love you guys." Zuko and Mai then kissed, though were careful not to drop the children.
The next day in Ba Sing Se, Katara lay on her bed in the room of the palace the Earth King had provided for her. Though she was not fond of the idea of having to remain shut up in the palace, guarded around the clock, she had to admit that her room was not something to complain about; she had a large, soft bed, as well as dozens of other elegant pieces of furniture and a magnificent mirror that had a cabinet underneath it where every hygiene provision that could possibly ever be needed was to be found and food would be brought in with a simple request to one of the servants.
The door to the room swung open and Aang shuffled merrily in, Sokka and Suki walking behind him, Little Hakoda in Suki's arms.
"Guys!" Katara exclaimed as she ran over to them. She gave her husband a kiss then gave her brother a hug as well as her sister-in-law.
"Well this is a fancy setup" Sokka said as he looked around the room. "You should get attacked by the Dai Li more often."
"Aang told you already huh?" Katara asked. "Yeah are you sure you're ok?" Suki asked.
"Of course I am," Katara assured, "I've dealt with much worse than a few Dai Li agents."
Sokka sat down on a nearby chair adjacent to a table that hosted a bowl of litchi nuts. He held out his hand and prepared to take a handful when out of the blue Momo lunged out and smacked them from his palm. As the kernels fell to the floor the greedy lemur quickly nibbled away at them as Sokka started swatting him away.
"Bad Momo!" shouted Sokka. "Those are mine!"
"Sokka, you aren't seriously going to eat nuts off the ground are you?" Katara scolded. Sokka rose to his feet embarrassedly and replied, "Uh...of course not."
"Well anyway" interjected Aang. "Do you guys mind keeping Katara company while I take care of something?"
"Well sure Aang" replied Suki. "But what do you have to take care of?"
"I'm going to go find Long Feng" said the Avatar. "He's attacked my family for the last time." "Wait a second" Sokka said. "You're going alone? Don't you want our help stopping Long Feng?" "It's just Long Feng, Sokka" Aang said. "I can stop him by myself."
It may has well have been said that the word 'what' escaped every pair of lips other than Aang and Momo's.
"You're going to try to stop Long Feng, by yourself?" the always logical Sokka asked. "Why not?" Aang asked as if the issue was entirely simple.
"Oh I don't know, maybe because he's a maniacal, calculating, homicidal maniac!" shouted Sokka. "He's right Aang" Katara agreed. "Remember, Long Feng killed Jet."
"He also had Ba Sing Se under his control for years before you came along" Suki added. "That may be true" admitted Aang. "But I'm the Avatar."
"So what?" said Sokka.
"So..." Aang replied sarcastically. "...I'm stronger than Long Feng. He may have killed Jet but Jet didn't have mastery of all four elements and of the Avatar State. I stopped Fire Lord Ozai by myself I think that I can handle Long Feng."
"Fire Lord Ozai fought you one-on-one" Sokka reminded rationally. "That's not Long Feng's style. There are hundreds of Dai Li agents."
"And there are over a thousand Avatars" countered Aang. "And when I'm in the Avatar State their power is mine."
"Long Feng is a bureaucratic coward who hides behind his agents; do you really think he'll risk his plan in a fight with you?"
"I don't think he'll have a choice."
"Why are you so determined to do this alone?"
"Because, when Katara was almost killed I wasn't there; I didn't do anything. I'm her husband and I'm supposed to protect her but I completely failed. When a man was about to stab her in the neck I was out buying a teapot. This world won't be safe for her and my children as long as the Dai Li is around. So I'm going to find them and stop them, and I don't need any help; I'm not the goofy kid you found in the iceberg anymore, I'm a man now."
"Are you sure Aang?"
"If I need any help, I'll ask."
Sokka looked to Katara and Suki and they appeared as confused as he was. "Well at least tell us where you're going" the Water Tribe warrior requested.
"First I'll search Lake Laogai" Aang explained. "Then I'll continue my search from there. It'll probably only take a few weeks at the most."
"Exactly how do you plan on stopping Long Feng?" Sokka asked shortly.
"I figured I'll just use Energybending, take away his Earthbending and then hand him over to the Earth King" Aang said.
"Right" Sokka said judgingly. "What about the other Dai Li agents?"
"Well...I didn't exactly think about that. But without Long Feng they'll just fall apart and go back to their lives won't they?"
"What if they don't?! What if you just make them mad and they try to kill you again? Didn't you come up with a plan?!"
"No, but I'll figure it out." "I should come with you."
"No. I can defeat Long Feng by myself. I want you guys to stay here and watch over Katara while I'm gone."
Before a rebuttal could be offered the Avatar was already halfway out the door. "Wait Aang" Katara said. "I have something to say."
Aang halted. "What?"
"Don't be gone too long" she said. She placed a palm over her belly. "This is the kind of thing I need you around for."
"I won't be gone long" Aang promised.
A month later the village where the rebel had stood up to the tax-collecting soldiers assembled at the gate that served as the entrance of the town. Those who were gifted with the abilities of Earthbending stood ready and those who weren't, were armed with anything available; things such as pitchforks, hoes, kitchen-knives, and work hammers. About three dozen villagers had assembled to defy the collectors. The rebel stood at their head.
The same colonel and soldiers, including the ones of Fire Nation lineage, who had collected taxes the prior month shuffled into the small town with the collection box.
"Everyone form into a line" the colonel said as he did every month, paying no notice to the quiet intensity of the townspeople.
No one moved.
"We will be oppressed no longer" the rebel informed calmly.
"You again" the colonel acknowledged. "I trust we will have no further problems. Hopefully the harshness of your taxation this month will detour you from supplementary defiance."
"The taxes were always harsh!" a villager spat.
A woman shouted. "You stand with Fire Nation soldiers; you disgrace your kingdom!"
The colonel sighed. "This was amusing, but we have other duties to attend. Now taxpayers, step forth."
"As I said before colonel" the rebel began menacingly. "Our people will be oppressed by neither you nor the king any longer." He lifted his arm and performed a gesture that was the signal for the Earthbenders.
"We will show you three compassion being that you are of our nationality" the rebel said. "However, the Firebenders die."
The colonel said, "I cannot allow that." He stomped his foot roughly and thrust forth a boulder, only for the rebel to kick it aside and to strike him with his fist, the humble villager rendering the experienced soldier unconscious with his bare hands.
"That's for humiliating me" said the rebel vengefully.
The other two Earth Kingdom soldiers hastily picked up their comatose leader and stood fearfully.
"Fly you fools" said the rebel. The soldiers did not need reiteration; within a minute they had run out of sight of the village.
The livid villagers crowded around the fallen Firebenders like hyenas around the corpse of a wildebeest.
"This is what becomes of those who cross the Earth Kingdom" the rebel said as the defenseless Firebenders gazed apprehensively at their attackers. "Finish them."
In a flash of metal tools and stone the rage of the villagers was hurled down. The bloodcurdling howls of the soldiers rang through the air like the winds of a tornado, until the Firebenders died, warm blood drenching their bodies, their eyes open in shock and their jaws gaping ajar, like those of a slaughtered animal.
"We have done it" the rebel proclaimed, a gleam of proud malice in his eye.
"We owe it all to you" proclaimed the eldest man of the village. "Had your spirit not inspired us we would have never taken the initiative to claim our vengeance."
"Hope is kindled." said the rebel. "Kindled for all the Earth Kingdom; the noble act carried out here will forever serve as a glimmering spark of justice for all subjugated Earth Kingdom citizens."
"It is all thanks to you" said a young, female Earthbender. "That gleam of hope was lit in your heart. You have the courage and strength of a Lion Turtle."
"I am flattered," said the rebel. "And humbled, however this gleam was not born in my heart. I was inspired by the valor of a much greater man than I."
"Who? Who is the man who motivated you to rise above the pathetic squalor of a browbeaten peasant?" "A man of the highest esteem and honor He has many aliases, but he is known to me as Long Feng."