Chapter Text
Aang, a voice said in the darkness. Familiar, warm, low. Open your eyes.
A crack of light in the dark, growing wider, brighter. Then, there:
Avatar Roku?
Hello, Aang.
They stood in a dense forest, wet with heat, their bodies real and substantial, rather than transparent and ethereal. Not the spirit world, Aang knew. A dream, his surroundings supplied.
I can’t believe you’re here.
Roku’s smile was funny. Unreal.
I’m not. But there is somewhere you need to go.
Avatar Roku, what does this mean?
No Avatar has died and come back. No Avatar has returned to the world free of their destiny. Travel deep into the forest, Aang. There is someone you need to meet.
Who? Avatar Roku? Avatar Roku!
The light gave way to the darkness. Aang called his name again, but there was no response. Avatar Roku was gone. The forest was gone. The light was gone.
Aang bolted upright, suddenly awake. He was warm, still, though not in the humid way of his dream. This heat came from Zuko, curled up nearby, asleep like all of Aang’s friends. They weren’t even a day out from the comet, but in the distance, Aang could see the sun rising on a new dawn, almost a full twenty-four hours since the battle.
They had headed for the Fire Nation immediately after Ozai’s death, but flaming boulders had kept them back, instead choosing to head low to a town where a party was in full swing. They were celebrating the Ascension of the new Fire Lord: Azula. They were too late for Zuko to challenge her for the throne without igniting a civil war.
Now, on a small island where they had rendezvoused with the Water Tribe men; the Fire Naval ship floating off shore, Aang carefully pried himself away from Zuko’s side. Toph shifted but settled once more.
He crept over Sokka and Suki, bundled under blankets that hid the worst of their damage, and slipped away from Katara, still curled up in the warmth that Zuko radiated in his sleep. He woke Appa quietly, shushing his low rumbling groan, and whispered the command words that had them lifting into the sky.
He started east, back towards the Earth Kingdom, and glanced back, hoping the others would sleep through the rest of the night. Zuko especially, who was weak and angry; fluctuating between deep melancholy and loud rage. His father was dead and his sister took the throne; there was no easy way to move forward.
Despite what they had thought, the war was not over, after all.
Aang flew on, silent and wired, his dream replaying around his mind. It was an hour or so later that Zuko awoke, rising with the sun as he was prone to do. His questions woke Katara, who woke Toph, and so on, until all six of them were looking towards the horizon, Aang’s dream a whisper in their minds.
You saw Roku – does that mean you’re still the Avatar after all?
No, it means he was saying goodbye.
They flew on. They ate breakfast in the sky, and over the rolling plains of saved, green land, they ate lunch. Soon enough, they were flying over a forest, stretched as far as the eye could see. In the centre sat a monolithic tree, the roots of which connected the entire forest together.
“What is this place?” Suki asked.
“The swamp,” Aang replied.
He directed Appa to the base of the giant banyan-grove tree’s trunk, where he landed with a relieved grumble. Huu, sitting cross-legged on one root, peered up at them, his grey hair in disarray.
“I thought I heard you comin’,” he said as Aang slipped down from Appa’s head.
“Where are they?” Aang asked in return.
“Jus’ down in the village. Y’all comin’?”
Aang gestured for them to follow, and they climbed down. Sokka’s leg was still very much broken, though properly aligned now, and Huu took one look at him before offering him a stick to help him walk. Suki limped alongside him, her torso and legs covered in crosshatched marks, shrapnel-wounds and slicing from their crash. Sokka’s armour had saved him the same fate.
They followed along, Huu whistling a tune as they climbed down the roots and into the cover of the trees, Appa left behind to rest.
It wasn’t far, and soon enough they were in the midst of one of the Foggy Swamp villages, Tho and Due waving with recognition. Aang barely spared them a glance, though Sokka and Katara called back. He knew what he was looking for.
They stopped in the path between a series of huts and Huu eyed him cautiously.
“The tree keeps us all connected,” he said. “So you here for what I think you’re here for?”
Aang swallowed and looked ahead to a hut built with sticks and mud. The roof and doorway were draped with leaves sewn together. He knew where he had to go.
“Yes,” Aang replied, and started forward.
He pushed aside the curtain doorway, shedding light into the dim interior of the hut. It was sparse; a few belongings, a lantern and a bed, where a woman laid. She smiled at him when he entered, like she knew he was coming. The tree keeps us all connected.
“Come see,” she said.
Aang stepped inside and moved to her bedside, crouching beside her to peer at the bundle in her arms. The first of the Foggy Swamp Tribe; an unprecedented event spawning from another totally unprecedented event.
“Her name’s Yue,” the woman said. Yue was small, with a tuft of dark hair, her eyes closed. Aang looked up to the doorway, where his friends blocked the light, watching with wide eyes. Sokka looked ready to fall over.
As Aang’s gaze drifted back to the baby, he placed a gentle hand on her hair, and her eyes blinked open, a deep, rich brown. There is someone you need to meet, Roku had whispered into his dream. Aang agreed wholeheartedly; this was someone he needed to meet.
“Yue,” he said, smiling. “That’s a beautiful name.”
Aang leaned forward, brushing a kiss against her forehead. He felt a new destiny falling into place; one for who he was now, one made for who she was going to be. This wasn’t the path the fates intended, though it was the one that came to be.
The baby locked onto his gaze, like somehow she knew, though she was only a few months old. There was a lot of wisdom already waiting inside her, ready to help her grow.
Aang smiled.
A new destiny.
He said, “Welcome to the world, Avatar Yue.”