So I started this fic I'm genuinely unsure when but it was years ago because I thought it should exist, but no one has ever done it. I made a little progress here and there between many other fics and then all of a sudden today I was like I'm just going to finish it. And here we are nearly 5k later so yes it's maybe a little rough, but I think it's a genuine tragedy no one has written this story before.

This is a complete AU despite sticking fairly close to the series plots in some areas and literally just copying dialogue because if it ain't broke don't fix it, but don't try to skim over things. I do tend to skim over the stuff that isn't so affected by the reincarnation, but also I do make some changes. Both Katara's and Zuko's character arcs change because of their reincarnation.

Katara has always dreamed. That wasn't unusual, and she thinks nothing of it until she realized her dreams weren't what anyone else dreamed of. Sokka told stories of long dreams where he had to outrun polar bear dogs across the ice plains. Her father told stories of dreams of fishing in icy seas which caused her mother to joke that he fished too much. Her mother always said that she never dreamed.

Katara works up the courage to tell them she dreams of villages made of stone and in the dirt grows trees and green plants, and even the people wear green.

Her mother says, "It sounds like the Earth Kingdom."

Her father says. "But she's never seen it."

Then her mother is killed, and she doesn't ask about anyone's dreams anymore. The dreams change when her father leaves for war. The people in her dreams wear armor and carry weapons made of metal. She sees herself putting on armor, but she doesn't look like herself.

She asks her grandmother, "Is it possible to live more than one life?"

Her grandmother looks at her for a moment then says, "Only the Avatar has more than one life. It is the price of wielding such power. Their soul may never pass on and find rest."

Katara nods, but she feels that it isn't true, somewhere deep in her bones.

Then, she discovers the Avatar with her brother. He is only a boy, and he lies. He tells her he knew of the airbender who was the Avatar.

She says, "No, you are the Avatar."

Her brother and the Avatar both stare at her.

The Avatar asks, "How did you know? How could you tell?"

She says, "How else could you survive?"

They both accept her answer, but in truth she knew because he was so old, older than her. How could she explain such a thing when he looked only twelve?

A Fire Nation ship arrives within a day, and a boy teetering on the edge of manhood asks for the Avatar. Aang goes with him. Katara and Sokka go after Aang. They all flee the ship on Appa.

That night, Katara's dreams give her a reprieve from war, one she desperately needs now that she has found war outside of them. Instead, she dreams of a woman. The woman is the most beautiful woman she has ever seen, and she wears a dress of emerald green. She reaches out for the woman, and she disappears.

The dreams of war and the woman grow more frequent as they journey north. She gathers her courage to ask Aang if he knew of any other souls who lived again as the Avatar did.

He frowns and says, "A few, but not many, and they don't reincarnate as often. Someone would have to leave something great undone or have done some great act of evil that requires a second lifetime of penance. Why?"

She answers, "I keep having dreams of places and people I've never seen before. I don't know how to explain it."

He gives her a look of miserable commiseration. "I did think that you seemed old when we met. Perhaps that's how we are able to know each other."

"Why me?" she asks, wondering which fate had befallen her soul.

"I asked that, too," Aang says then frowns. "But I think that's the wrong way to think about it. We aren't some new being that was caught in the trap of an old, long gone life. We weren't chosen. That past life was still us. We made that choice, that whatever was left was important enough to come back for."

Katara thinks upon his words and says, "That feels right. There's something I have to find."

Aang smiles. "Well, we're travelling all over the world. I'm sure we'll find it."

Katara hesitates. "I don't know that it's something. I think it's someone. There's a woman in my dreams. She's special somehow. I think I'm meant to find her, whoever she is now."

Katara thinks she might find the beautiful woman from her dreams in the North Pole. That somehow, if she as a reincarnated soul was able to find the Avatar then her destiny must lie alongside his. They do find a beautiful woman, but Princess Yue is the woman of Sokka's dreams, not Katara's. No, Katara is more concerned with the men of the tribe preventing her from learning waterbending. She knows within her bones the necessity of learning to protect herself and how war has mercy for no one.

She challenges Pakku for the right to learn. She loses, and it's almost insulting that he only relents because he discovers she is Kanna's granddaughter. Almost because the only thing that matters is that she learns to fight. In her dreams, she learns to earthbend, but something is different about it. It doesn't look quite the same as the earthbending she saw in the Earth Kingdom. She can't ever seem to recall the face of her teacher either.

Learning waterbending brings Katara so much joy that of course the Fire Nation must steal that from her as well. She guards Aang as they attack the walls, and she wishes to run forth and defend her sister people. Instead, she waits.

Zuko appears as if summoned though she has no idea how he found them let alone made it into the city. They fight, and she is proud to match him, best him even.

"You rise with the moon," he says as dawn breaks and for a moment, he looks brilliant in the sunlight. "I rise with the sun."

The tides turn, and he defeats her. Aang is gone when she wakes. Sokka and Yue bring Appa and help her search for him. It is easy to defeat Zuko when he's alone in a blizzard on top of a glacier. Aang insists they bring him back instead of leaving him to die, and she doesn't have it in her to disagree.

Once returned to the oasis, Zuko is forgotten. Zhao kills the moon, and Aang embraces the ocean's fury. Yue sacrifices herself to save the moon. The Northern Water Tribe survives, but by the thinnest of ice.

Katara, Sokka, and Aang leave on Appa to return to the Earth Kingdom and find an earthbending teacher for Aang. "If only you could still teach me earthbending," Aang jokes to Katara.

Sokka frowns. "I don't see why everyone else gets to have multiple lives, but I'm just me."

Aang shrugs, and the concern is forgotten when they meet a general only interested in using Aang as a weapon. They escape and fly towards Omashu and discover the city had been taken by Fire Nation forces. They are forced underground into tunnels with a group of travellers to reach the city.

Katara finds the tombs of Oma and Shu with Aang and Appa. She reads the inscription upon the tomb, and as she reads she realizes what it will say.

Katara cries and the tears blur her vision. She says, "I left her."

Aang watches in concern. "Katara?"

She doesn't realize he means her at first. Then she says, "I think I was Shu. I remember this, the war, the tunnels, earthbending. I remember Oma."

Aang nods. "I'm sorry. Do you remember the way out?"

She nods her head. "We put glowing crystals in the ceiling. We only need to put out the torches."

Her memories ring true and the tunnel is bathed in green when Aang extinguishes the flame. They find their way out and wait for Sokka and the travellers to find a way out as well. They arrive behind blind badger moles, and Katara realizes why she had never seen the face of her teacher in her dreams.

She tells him as they head toward the city named after her and her love, "I was Shu and I'm going to find Oma."

Her brother looks at her, wary of such a task. "Who is Oma now and where do we find her?"

She confesses, "I don't know, but I'll never stop until I find her."

They find Toph in Gaoling before they find anyone who might be Oma. Toph isn't impressed by Katara though she is interested in Shu which somehow makes being around her worse as they are hunted without rest. They cross paths with Zuko after their hunter reveals herself as his sister, and he no longer looks like a prince. She offers to heal his uncle after Azula wounds him, but Zuko rejects her offer with flames.

Her dreams grow more somber during their time in Ba Sing Se. She sees the consequences of the war she had fought as Shu on his home and her fear for Oma weighs heavily. Her dreams do not know she dies first, not Oma.

When they finally succeed in reaching the Earth King, Azula outdoes them in infiltrating the palace and locks her in caverns that remind her of the tunnels of Omashu. No, that remind of her of where she is buried. Eventually, Azula throws another prisoner in with her, and it is Zuko.

He does nothing to fight her, but she screams at him anyways. When she cries over her mother, he says, "That's something we have in common."

She looks at him with watery but clear eyes and realizes he is old. Something else they have in common. They talk quietly despite there being no one to hear them. She confesses she saw his face as the enemy's. He brings his hand over his scar.

She pulls out her vial of spirit water, and says, "I can heal it."

He tells her, "It's a scar. It can't be healed."

She shows him the vial, "This came from the oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties."

He closes his eyes, allowing her to try. She places her hand on his face against the edge of his scar. His face wavers before her in the dim green crystal light. He is no longer the scarred son of the Fire Lord, but the beautiful woman of her dreams.

She gasps, "Oma?"

He stares at her in shock and confusion. Her heart will break if he does not recognize her, but Aang breaks through the wall of the cavern before any more can be said. They are separated by Aang and Zuko's uncle.

As they travel up the tunnel, she tells Aang, "He is Oma."

He asks, disbelieving, "Are you sure?"

She says, "I saw it."

He asks, "What do you think he'll do?"

She answers, "I don't know."

Oma would side with her, but he is not Oma like she is not Shu.

Azula attacks them in the old ruined city, and they respond in kind. They are overwhelmed by Azula and the Dai Li. Zuko never appears. Katara is hurt and yet relieved. If he remains hidden then he will likely be safe. If he has not sided with his sister over her, he has not broken her heart.

Azula strikes Aang with lightning, and Katara races to reach him. She holds him in her arms and feels only the barest threads of life. She looks up, trying to find a way out, to save him and herself. She sees Zuko, too far to help, and looks higher. She raises herself and Aang with water, outrunning the Dai Li and finding the rest of their group. The spirit water is enough to save Aang, but not heal him entirely.

Katara reunites with her father and tribesmen as they hide in plain sight on a Fire Nation ship. She heals Aang every night. Every morning, she glares at the sun's reflection on the water, cursing that she and Zuko are on opposite sides of a war once again. Zuko can't bend the world to his will the way he once did with two cities, and it won't matter at all if she's dead for it.

Aang flees the ship once he is well enough to bend, and she and Sokka chase after him again on Appa though this time they have Toph with them. They travel through the Fire Nation as they wait for the troops to gather for the invasion. They all learn of their enemies' land and train Aang for his eventual confrontation of the Fire Lord.

Zuko does not reappear until after the invasion fails. Katara wants to trust Oma, but she does not know Zuko, not the way she knew Oma. Sokka is wary of him, Toph accepting, but Aang looks worried.

Still, Katara asks him, "What happened?"

Zuko can barely look at her. "You took the Avatar. Azula had no body to deliver so she needed a scapegoat in case he wasn't dead."

What remains unsaid was his strong desire to return home. Oma had always been strongly connected to her people, always desired to see to their health, safety, and prosperity. Still, Zuko had not fought against Katara beneath Ba Sing Se, and he is now here to teach the Avatar.

Toph smashes through to the topic everyone else had been avoiding. She asks Zuko, "Were you really Oma, like Katara says she was Shu?"

Zuko answers, "Yes, but I don't remember that life well."

Sokka gapes, "You had more lives than just Oma and Shu?"

Zuko nods. "Yes, not as many as the Avatar, of course, but many. Katara followed the Avatar cycle, and I followed its opposite."

Katara asks, "Did you dream about them all?"

Zuko nods and says, "I believe so."

Sokka asks, "What does it do for you? Why do you have so many lives?"

Aang answers instead of Zuko, "It usually improves your bending with each life. That's how Katara could become a master so quickly, and the same for me with airbending and waterbending."

Zuko says, "They've changed firebending since the last time I lived as a firebender. I've struggled with it in this life. I don't know what they've changed. I don't remember those other lives well enough."

Aang ask, "So what does that mean for you teaching me?"

Zuko answers, "We need to find the masters, the dragons. Or if we can't find them, older texts about firebending."

Before Zuko and Aang leave on their journey, Zuko speaks to Katara alone. He says, "There's something else you should know about our reincarnation."

She looks at him and motions for him to continue. He has to take a deep breath before he can.

"We don't have the spiritual energy to be born again right after death like the Avatar. It can take years or decades or even centuries for us to return, yet we only ever return in times of war and on opposite sides."

Katara frowns. It sounds like they have doomed themselves to trying to correct the mistakes of their first lives, but that war nor this one were their faults. Why must it be their duty to search for each other through wars and again find themselves on opposing sides? They must have tried to end those wars as they had the first, as they do with this war. What must they do for their souls to find rest?

She then says, "Air nomads didn't fight wars. Weren't we airbenders in some lives?"

He answers, "Not in the first lives. Even later when they didn't fight, they still chose sides."

Katara asks, "What do we do? What are you asking me to do?"

He says, "I only have one request."

She asks, "What?"

He looks at her in all his earnestness and commands, "Don't die."

She blinks in surprise then nods, wondering in how many wars she has died first.

Her dreams change in his absence. She is no longer Shu or Earth Kingdom. She is Water Tribe, but she still fights against Earth Kingdom men though some Fire Nation appear to be among them. The battles are different as well, fought from ships rather than on land. She thinks the Earth Kingdom sailors are either foolish or desperate.

She tells her brother and Toph of her new dreams. Toph proclaims these new dreams boring while Sokka tries to discern when they may take place.

On the final night before Zuko and Aang's return, she finally dreams of Oma - Zuko? - again. She is Fire Nation, her hair darker, skin and eyes lighter, her features much sharper. Still, she remains the most beautiful woman she has ever seen. Upon her waking, Katara wonders if she thinks Zuko as beautiful as his past lives.

Zuko and Aang return with wisdom given to them from dragons and the oldest form of firebending. Zuko leaves again, this time with Sokka to find Hakoda. Again, Zuko visits her before he leaves and bids her not to die. At least it is an easy task while she is hidden away with the rest of their group and focused on training Aang.

Then Zuko and Sokka return with Hakoda, Suki, and another prisoner they've never met. Farther behind them follows Azula, and they're forced to split their group and leave the Western Air Temple. Katara rages at the splitting of her family once again, but this time Zuko and not Sokka comforts her. They speak of their mothers, what they remember of them, and Katara realizes all over again how little she knows of Zuko despite how desperately she had wanted to find Oma. Since he has joined the group, he has spent much of that time on journeys away from her. Now that she's found him, she wants him to stay close. She wants to stay alive for him.

Zuko suggests they stay in the Fire Lord's summer palace, and Sokka finds an opportunity to waste time now that they have a new base. The play feels like her dreams but about her current life rather than a past one albeit with the things she does not remember filled in by an irreverent playwright. The liberal additions are at first harmlessly offensive, but the predicted end to their endeavor turns the dream-like play into a nightmare as Katara sees her worst fears playout on stage to raucous applause.

The group spends a day at the beach to lighten up, and Katara doesn't even realize that Zuko isn't with them until he appears from nowhere attacking Aang as if the past few weeks hadn't even happened. Katara misses most of the fight, chasing after Aang and Zuko and finding Zuko on the ground from a window that had been blasted open from airbending.

She says, "What's wrong with you? You could have hurt Aang,"

She knows that Zuko takes training very seriously, something that Aang needs, but this is too far.

He asks, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's comet is only three days away?"

None of them say anything.

Zuko asks, "Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?"

Aang answers, "About Sozin's comet, I was actually going to wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came."

Zuko says, "After?"

Aang says, "I'm not ready. I need more time to master firebending."

Toph says, "And frankly, your earthbending could still use some work, too."

Zuko asks, "So, you all knew Aang was gonna wait?"

"Honestly, if Aang was gonna fight the Fire Lord right now, he's gonna lose. No offense."

"The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war, but they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se," Katara says, taking a few steps towards Zuko. "Things can't get any worse."

"You're wrong," Zuko says, turning away from them. "Things are about to get worse than you can even imagine."

Zuko sits on a rock and explains that the Fire Lord intends to use the comet to raze the Earth Kingdom and completely destroy it as they had the Air Nomads. Now they have no choice, but to face the Fire Lord before the comet arrives, and they had been wasting their time. Katara watches as Zuko explains the technique to redirect the lightning which had once nearly killed Aang, and the experience of deflecting his own father's lightning. She hopes neither of them have to use it.

Even worse, Aang balks at the idea of having to actually kill the Fire Lord. Despite everything he knows about the Fire Lord and how necessary they explain that it is, he refuses to do it.

Aang argues, "This goes against everything I've learned from the monks. I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like."

"Sure you can," Sokka says. "You're the Avatar. If it's in the name of keeping balance, pretty sure the universe will forgive you."

Aang raises his voice and says, "This isn't a joke, Sokka! None of you understands the position I'm in."

"Aang, we do understand," Katara says, "It's just-"

He interrupts her, "Just what, Katara? What?"

"We're trying to help," she says, raising her own voice.

He says, "Well, when you figure out a way to defeat the Fire Lord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it!"

"There is no other choice in this situation. This is a war," Zuko says, getting to his feet. "The only way to end them is to remove the circumstances that perpetuate them! This isn't like when I made Omashu and ended a war over territory by combining them into one shared territory. This war has been created and sustained by men who lust for power and glory, and you cannot end the war without removing those men."

Aang throws up his hands and begins to walk off.

"If you do not end this war, Avatar, I will," Zuko says at his retreating back. "And the world will be worse for it."

"Aang, don't walk away from this," Katara says, turning to go after him. She stops when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him go," Zuko says, and she turns towards him. "We've said our parts. He needs time to sort it out by himself."

"Will things really be worse if you do it instead of Aang?" Sokka asks. "He's clearly not willing, but you are, any of us are."

"In any circumstance aside from the Avatar striking him down, yes," Zuko says. "The Avatar is an arbiter and mediator. He will be seen as not having any stakes in the war despite being a member of an entire people that were killed. His actions will be considered just and divine and open a path for Uncle to safely claim the throne without further contest. If any of us do it, we'd have to face Azula and any other contests to Uncle taking the throne. It would end the war, but we'd have a much more difficult time afterwards."

In the morning, they find Aang has disappeared in the night. They search the house and then the beach and then the island without seeing any sign of him beyond a set of footprints that disappear into the sea. Zuko takes them away from the Fire Nation to the bounty hunter with the giant mole creature he had used to track them to the abbey.

Jun makes a comment about Zuko making up with his girlfriend, and Katara shares a look with Zuko as she realizes they haven't said what they are now.

"More like my partner in reincarnation, but that's not the point," he says. "We need your help finding the Avatar."

"Clunky," Sokka says as Zuko argues with the bounty hunter. "How does soul partner sound?"

"Later, Sokka," she tells him.

The news only gets worse. The shirshu can't find Aang's scent, and Jun declares that he doesn't exist, not dead, but gone. Zuko instead produces one of his uncle's sandals to find him to help them defeat the Fire Lord. Nyla picks up his scent, and she chases after it, and they chase after her. They travel through the night and the entirety of the next day to reach the outer walls of Ba Sing Se where Jun leaves them saying that Zuko's uncle is near.

As they set up camp for the night, flames appear around them, keeping them contained. Jeong Jeong, Master Piandao, Master Pakku, and King Bumi all appear above the rocks that had fallen from the outer wall wearing matching blue robes and white collars. "Well, look who's here," King Bumi says and laughs

They go through introductions of the masters to Toph, Suki, and Zuko, and the masters explain that they work under an organization called the Order of the White Lotus. Zuko's uncle Iroh had called the members of the order together for some great task.

"That's who we're looking for," Toph says.

"Then we'll take you to him," Master Piandao says.

As they make their way past the outer walls, King Bumi tells them the story of his escape from imprisonment in Omashu. Zuko looks surprisingly proud of him for his escape though Katara suspects that it is Oma finding King Bumi a worthy ruler of the city she had created. Mater Piandao points out Iroh's tent when they arrive at the White Lotus campsite, and Zuko enters the tent on his own.

Zuko rejoins the group in the morning with his uncle in tow. They eat breakfast together, and Zuko tries to convince his uncle to help them defeat his father in Aang's absence. Iroh argues against it with the same arguments that Zuko had made for any of them attempting to defeat the Fire Lord. It would simply not be seen the same way as the Avatar removing Ozai from the throne.

"And then, would you come and take your rightful place on the throne?" Zuko asks.

"No, someone new must take the throne, an idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor," he says, looking to his nephew. "It has to be you, Prince Zuko."

"Unquestionable honor?" he asks in surprise. "But I've made so many mistakes."

"Yes, you have. You've struggled. You've suffered, but you have always found your own path. You restored your own honor, and only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation," he says. "You have not fought in the war, commanded men and armies against other nations. You would truly be a Fire Lord of peace. The same could not be said for myself."

Iroh assures them that they will all be in their places at the comet's arrival. Aang will face the Fire Lord while Iroh and the White Lotus free Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation. Zuko must return to the Fire Nation to assume the throne as soon as the Fire Lord is defeated to ensure peace and order and where Azula will be waiting to contest his claim to the throne.

"I can handle Azula," Zuko says.

"Not alone," Iroh says. "You will need help."

"You're right," he says, and Katara expects it when he looks to her. "Katara, will you come with me?"

"Of course," she assures him.

Sokka creates his own plan for himself, Suki, and Toph to take on the airship fleet and get Aang some extra time and support.

They split up quickly after breakfast, and Katara and Zuko take Appa to fly back to the Fire Nation. She's not even sure they'll make it in time with how far they have to travel from here to the Caldera. They say their farewells and begin their separate journeys to their destinies.

"I think this is the first time we'll be fighting on the same side of a war," Zuko muses as they fly.

"I look forward to it," she says. She's confident they can beat Azula together. She's more worried that Aang won't be able to fulfill his duties as the Avatar.

"I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you survive," Zuko says in that fierce, determined way of his.

"So long as we make it through this together."

The rest of their journey is tense and quiet as they do their best to push Appa for every last ounce of his speed and endurance. The comet still makes its first appearance before they arrive at the caldera. They land right as Azula is about to be crowned by the Fire Sages.

"Sorry, but you're not gonna become Fire Lord today," Zuko says then leaps off of Appa's head. "I am."

Azula laughs. "You're hilarious."

"And you're going down," Katara says, moving to stand beside Zuko.

"Wait," Azula commands the Fire Sage holding the crown then stands. "You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. You and me, Brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai!"

"You're on," Zuko says without hesitation.

"What are you doing?" Katara asks him quietly. "She's playing you. She knows she can't take us both so she's trying to separate us."

"I know, but I can take her this time."

"But even you admitted to your uncle that you would need help facing Azula."

"There's something off about her. I can't explain it, but she's slipping, and this way," he says, finally looking at her, "no one else has to get hurt."

"This isn't the time for you to try to protect me. No one has to get hurt if we do this together," she tells him, grabbing his arm.

"Trust me, Katara. I know it keeps you out of the fight, but it also keeps any guards and the Sages from fighting with her. I think this is the best option," he says, putting his hand over hers.

"Where are the guards?" she asks, now noticing how few people they are.

"Not important," he says, and he moves away from her to the starting position for the Agni Kai.

Katara stands to the side to watch as the siblings kneel at opposite ends of the courtyard. They stand and face each other at the same time without a signal.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way, Brother," she says, casting her cloak aside instead of taking a fighting stance.

"No, you're not," Zuko says calmly, already in position to fight.

The fight is as beautiful, vibrant red and blue flames clashing and flowing in the air, as it is terrifying, the flames wild and oversized in their power. The bending even sounds different, louder. Katara can feel the heat of them from where she stands out of the way.

Katara watches Zuko closely for any sign of struggle or weakness from him, but he matches Azula move for move. He was right. Something is wrong with Azula as she grows more erratic the longer the battle continues. She's lost her center, and she's tiring while Zuko remains on steady ground. Then Zuko knocks her off her feet and goads her.

"What, no lightning today?" he calls out to his sister. "Afraid I'll redirect it?"

Katara can't help the step forward she takes. She remembers what Zuko explained to Aang about the lightning, and how much more powerful it will be with the comet now fueling it. Azula begins generating the lighting and it begins to arc up around her, following the motions of her arms.

At the moment of release, Katara realizes it's directed at her. She freezes, certain that death is coming for her.

"No!," Zuko yells, leaping in front of the lightning meant for her.

She can only stare as Zuko receives the lightning and hits the ground. Most of the lightning is redirected away into the sky, but it's not the right move. Some of it must be left in him, and she can see him flat on the ground.

"Zuko!" she shouts, running towards him, and already pulling water to her hands. Another bolt of lighting hits the ground before her, preventing her from reaching him. Azula cackled maniacally from the other end of the courtyard.

Katara makes another attempt to reach Zuko, but Azula blocks her way with fire again. The heat of it is strong enough to evaporate the water surrounding her hands. She runs to dodge another attack.

Azula leaps up onto the roof of the open-air walkway beside them, gathering lightning again. "I'd really rather out family physician look after little Zuzu if you don't mind."

Katara runs from the blast, and takes cover behind a pillar to avoid the following fire blasts.

"Zuzu, you don't look so good," Azula gloats.

Katara peeks from behind her cover to see that he's still down on the ground, completely helpless and exposed. She can't let him die. Not like this, not ever.

Azula attacks her instead, and Katara is just grateful her attention isn't fully on Zuko as she ducks behind a different pillar. Katara pulls water from the pools running the length of the courtyard to attempt to attack her. Her water hits only the roof as Azula comes flying out from behind her. She runs, using the pool water to increase her speed against Azula's flames. She nearly runs out of water before finding shelter under another walkway, and trips on the grating in the center. She can't believe her luck when she sees running water under the grate. She looks up to see chains hanging on a lantern post and forms a plan. She grabs the chains and stops running.

"There you are, you filthy peasant," Azula says, stalking towards her.

Katara makes a feint, sending out small whips to goad Azula onto the grates. She dodges as expected and makes another move towards Katara. Katara raises her arms and freezes them both. Azula can do nothing as Katara uses her bending to melt the ice around herself and tie Azula's arms together and then to the grating. She unfreezes the water and forces it back down below the grating. She tightens the chains before running over the Zuko.

She carefully flips him onto his back, and now that she's close enough she can hear him groaning in pain. She pulls out her water and places it over the starburst shaped wound on his chest that matches the one Aang has on his back. It takes a moment for her to begin healing the worst of his injury, and she can see him relax once the pain begins to lessen.

She can't help her grin when she sees him looking at her.

"Thank you, Katara," he whispers.

She can't stop her tears anymore than she could have stopped her grin. "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you."

She has to return her attention to his wound for a few more moments. She can't fix it all at once, but she can do enough to make him safe. She can feel his chi bright and alive and has no doubt that he will recover with time and some more healing sessions.

She helps him sit up when she's finished for the moment and put her water away. Azula begins to scream and cry as Katara helps Zuko to his feet. Katara can't really look at her.

"She's never lost before," Zuko says quietly.

"We can worry about her later. Let's see what we can do about crowning you."

"Azula broke the rules by targeting you," Zuko explains as Katara slowly and carefully helps him towards the steps that lead to the palace. "She automatically lost, and since it was specifically for the crown, the sages have to crown me. It just doesn't matter unless Aang does his part."

Katara gets Zuko seated on the steps, and the Sages begin coming out from their hiding places. The Sages begin to explain how Azula had become paranoid and began firing and exiling all the staff.

Zuko frowns and says, "Reverse any orders she's made."

"You are, technically, still banished and a traitor," one Sage reminds him.

"I just won the crown in an Agni Kai," Zuko says, scowling.

"We'll see that it's done," a different Sage assures them.

It appears no one wants to stick around with the wailing Azula, and the Sages quickly scuttle away again. Katara sits with Zuko as they wait for news from their friends concerning the Fire Lord.

Eventually, it gets so late that the comet disappears and Katara forces Zuko inside to sleep to keep from undoing her hard work. It helps that some guards return to lock Azula properly away rather than keeping her chained to the grate. Katara would worry about Azula escaping, but she can't imagine the girl putting up much of a fight in her current state.

Zuko has to give her directions to his bedroom with how big the palace is. "Are you going to stay with me?" he asks when she helps him to sit on the bed.

"Of course," she says, getting out from under his arm to face him. "You're not in danger of dying in the middle of the night, don't worry. I've already fixed the worst of it, but I'd like to be nearby."

"I didn't mean as my physician," he says, taking hold of her hand.

"Oh," she says, feeling her cheeks heat.

"Through so many lives, we've hardly ever actually been together," he says, clutching her hand tightly. "If everyone else has done their parts, we might actually have some time for that."

"We'd have actually ended the war," she says wondrously, feeling the weight of all the wars she's died in before seeing the end of them. How long this war has gone on to potentially now be ended.

"And we'll have survived it," Zuko says, now beginning to cry the way she had in the courtyard.

She cups his face and uses her thumb to try and wipe away her tears. "Zuko, we lived. We get to live this time."

He laughs, the sound light and breathless. "We're alive."

"Yes, we're alive," she says, pressing their foreheads together.

In the morning, they receive a message by hawk. Aang returned in time to face Ozai and save the Earth Kingdom from burning. Instead of killing Ozai though, he somehow took his bending away. She can tell that Zuko has problems with it by the way he frowns as he reads over the letter, but she figures that's a problem for later. She sends the hawk back with a message for Sokka about what had happened in the capital.

Later turns out to be less than an hour later as Zuko meets with the Fire Sages to discuss his coronation after Ozai's defeat. A Fire Lord losing his firebending is unprecedented according to them. They spend all day discussing what laws or traditions it should fall under or if they need to create new laws for the circumstances. After hours of arguing, they decide that it still counts as an official removal from the throne by the Avatar, which has happened once before in Fire Nation history, and Ozai cannot retake the throne. As Zuko won the Agni Kai versus Azula for the throne, Zuko must be crowned despite the previous ruler exiling him and naming him a traitor.

After that was sorted, Zuko has to immediately take the post even if his official coronation hasn't taken place yet. It is enough for him to receive approval from the High Fire Sages for him to be able to begin to actually do the work. Granted, he can't do much with hardly anyone in the palace left whether staff or generals and other nobles between Azula's orders and the attack on the Earth Kingom, but he can at least exonerate himself and declare the war ended even if there would be logistics and treaties to work out with the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom.

By the end of the day, Katara has a headache and feels exhausted, but they also receive word from the White Lotus that they succeeded and that Ba Sing Se had been freed.

"Will you be going back to the Southern Water Tribe after my coronation?" Zuko asks when they're safely hidden in his chambers. He still hasn't officially moved into the Fire Lord's chambers, and Katara doesn't blame him.

Katara thinks of it, her home. She hasn't seen it in months now. She hasn't thought at all of what she would do after the war ended. She hadn't been able to think that far ahead, to plan everything. She doesn't know what she wants to do even if her heart aches to see her family together again and see her home, but she's also seen so much of the world now and has people outside of her home that she cares for. "Do you not want me to stay?" she asks though it's not quite what she wants to say.

"Of course, I want you to stay," he says, so earnestly. "But I've seen your home, and I'd like to think I know you pretty well by now. They need your help, and you're going to give it."

She sighs because he's completely right. Even if all she has of southern style waterbending is one scroll and the little Hama taught her, her people need it. Master Pakku and the northerners he brought with him might have helped her village build houses and improved other amenities, but that didn't change that they were still northerners. If she returned to her own village, the northerners could also move the other villages of the Southern Water Tribe and help them rebuild as well. They had also sent men to create the Southern Water Tribe Fleet when her father and the rest of her village's men had left. They deserved that help. "You won't be able to come with me. Are you sure you're okay with that?"

He sighs and takes hold of her hands. "Saying I would be okay would be putting it a little too lightly, but yes, I'm okay with you going back home. We have so much time now that I never expected. We both have responsibilities we have to see to right now, but that doesn't mean that we can't write or visit until we're able to be together properly."

She gives his hands a squeeze and says, "Yeah, I'm going to go home with my family after your coronation."

"Okay," he says, still sounding disappointed even though he said it was okay. "I'll plan for that."

His coronation arrives a week later when they're able to gather most of their allies out of prison or the Earth Kingdom so they're able to attend the first formal event to mark peacetime. They even scrounge up some Fire Nation nobles and military men who were either against Ozai, still supportive of Iroh, or approving of Zuko himself. Iroh stands beside Zuko as he is officially crowned while Katara stands beside her father and brother in the crowd of onlookers.

The Southern Water Tribe Fleet are the first to depart after the coronation as the men are all desperate to see home again. Zuko sees them off in full regalia as a sign of respect as they still have a formal treaty to negotiate and sign. Hakoda grips Zuko's arm in the Water Tribe way, and Zuko hesitates a moment before returning the gesture. Sokka gives Zuko a hug goodbye and doesn't do a great job of wiping away his tears. Katara expects a hug from Zuko as well, but instead he takes her by her arm and manages to guide her away from the crowds to find an area of the docks where they can't be seen in.

"Until I see you again," he says then kisses her gently.

She wraps her arms around his neck to pull him back towards her and kiss him again. She knows she's kissed him before in other lives, but she'd been afraid he'd let her leave without one. Now that they've kissed in this life, she wants a thousand more and a thousand more after that. "It won't be soon enough."

"I'm already trying not to beg you to stay," he says. "Please don't make it harder."

As he stares down at her, Katara decides he is every bit as beautiful now as he was as Oma. She can remember how harsh and ugly he had seemed when she had first laid eyes on him in her village, and she can see none of it now that he looks at her with such tenderness. She has loved every face he has ever worn, and if they are to live again, she will love that face as well. "I'll come back as soon as I can. I promise."

"I'll hold you to it," he says, smiling as he teases her.

He lets her go, and she joins her family on her father's ship. She waves to Zuko, and he waves back. He stays on the dock for at least as long as she can see him on the horizon as they sail away.

"You okay?" her brother asks, joining her on the railing. She knows he's missing Suki already.

"I'm happy to be going home," she says, "but I already can't wait to see him again."

"You haven't explained your whole reincarnation things and you and Zuko being Oma and Shu yet, have you?"

Katara winces. "Not yet."

"Well, it's probably best you waited. He can't threaten your soul partner if there's an ocean between them."

She laughs. "Yeah probably."

Katara ends up not actually telling her father until she receives an entire box of scrolls about southern style waterbending from the Fire Nation's archives as well as Zuko's first attempt at a betrothal necklace which he'd only sent her to get her opinion on the design. Hakoda had taken one look at it then immediately demanded to know everything and why she hadn't told him earlier.

Katara wasn't all that intimidated by her father's bluster after technically being Zuko's lover basically since the beginning of bending and for the majority of that time risking death just to see him. She appreciated that he cared, but after stopping a hundred-year long war together there was literally nothing in the world that could keep her from saying yes to Zuko's proposal and eventually living with him.

So I think a big reason I ended up being kind of slow at this was because I was trying to do a fairy tale story type of style that shifts towards a more typical prose novel style as it sinks in for Katara that this is real life. Like she goes from being the heroine of a tragic fairy tale where she dies in war a lot to not only ending a war, but both she and her reincarnation partner/soulmate get to live after. I don't know if it worked, but I went screw it just get it out there. It was also because I wanted to cover the whole series and not have this fic being like 50k.

For a show with a main character with one half of their shtick is reincarnation, atla does not have a lot of culture or theology behind the reincarnation. It doesn't even say if it's only the Avatar that does it like only the Avatar can bend all four elements. So I made it up.