Sokka had been in hideouts before.

About half of these hideouts had been his own hideouts when he and Katara and Aang had been hiding from the Fire Nation and other enemies. They had mostly been caves- remote enough to hide in, big enough to fit Appa, shelter from wind, rain and other annoyances. Not comfortable, but not uncomfortable. He had seen other hideouts as well. Suki had shown him a few during a slightly longer visit to Kyoshi Island, and Zuko had shown him some secret rooms in the palace.

The coolest hideout or secret room he had ever seen was the secret chamber in the North Pole where the Ocean and Moon Spirits lived. It had been the most mysterious place he had ever been to. That said, he never wanted to return to it. He did not think he could face the room where his first love died.

In any case, the White Lotus hideout was not the classiest one he had ever seen, but it was certainly grand. And it was well hidden. Without guidance, he would not have been able to find it. Fortunately, a man had come to his room that night at ten o'clock and, giving him a white lotus tile as proof that he was trustworthy, had led Sokka through back roads and secret doors to the chamber he was in now, where apparently White Lotus members would be gathering for the initiation ceremony over the next hour.

The chamber was underground (as far as Sokka could tell, unless that one secret tunnel had actually brought him above ground at some point). It was lit by large torches. There were enough of them that the room was not frighteningly dark, but still shadowy enough to make Sokka feel a bit nervous. It was not very decorated. There were no Fire Nation flags on the rocky walls, strange in this Fire Nation Capital. There was a rug, the most decoration the room had. There was a trunk in a corner of the huge chamber that Sokka found highly mysterious. Half of him wanted to open it. There were also at least fifteen Pai Sho tables scattered around the room, but those were not exactly surprising.

Members of the Order were arriving sporadically. At least, Sokka assumed they were members. They were men wearing dark cloaks though, which covered their faces and whatever other clothes they were wearing, so he did not really know much about their looks at least. He really wanted one of those cloaks. They looked almost as cool as those wolf heads that South Pole warriors wore.

Eventually someone showed up that Sokka actually did recognize.

"Toph!" he exclaimed happily. He'd known she would show up eventually-they had told each other they had gotten into the Order-so it was no surprise, but it was still good to see her.

Toph made a face at him. "Aren't we supposed to be quiet, Sokka? I mean, not that I mind the noise, but this is a secret White Lotus hideout."

Sokka shrugged. "I don't know. What do you think the initiation ceremony's going to be like?"

Toph shrugged back as she crossed the room to join him where he was standing in almost the exact center of the chamber, where he had a view of any part of the room he wanted. "Maybe we have to defeat one of the White Lotus masters to get in. Maybe we're going to have to have an epic bending competition." She grinned in anticipation.

"Um, I don't think that's going to happen," Sokka said. "Not everyone here looks like they're good at fighting. Most of them are pretty old."

"Hey," said Toph. "Don't underestimate people just because they don't look tough. I beat half my opponents that way."

Sokka crossed his arms. "Just saying, I don't think we're going to have a fighting competition in a room with this nice of a rug."

"It is a nice rug," Toph mused. "Well, I hope we at least don't have to sign anything."

Sokka was going to say that he had no problem with signing things, and his calligraphy was perfectly fine, thank you, when someone tackled from the side, sending him falling to the ground.

"Wha-" he choked.

"Oh, hi Ty Lee," Toph said drily.

"Oh my gosh!" the person who was currently hugging Sokka way too tight said. "I didn't know you guys got into the Order too! That's so exciting!"

"Isn't it," said Toph. "Sokka's breathing has been stifled and I think his heartbeat is slowing. Please don't kill him."

"Oops," said the person who was apparently Ty Lee. "Sorry." She pulled Sokka to his feet in one movement. For a girl, she was pretty strong. (And if Suki were there she would probably beat him up for the first three words of that sentence.)

Ty Lee was wearing pink as usual; only today she was wearing a darker shade than normal, probably in an effort to be mysterious as the occasion demanded. But she was smiling far too widely to look anything but cheerful. "Toph! You look good. But you should wear a different color tiara. That one totally doesn't match your dress."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Toph said sarcastically. "Next time I'll look more closely."

"Girls, girls," Sokka interrupted. "Fight some other time. Iroh just arrived. I think the ceremony is about to begin."

As it turned out, he was right. Iroh, wearing a dark red robe with a hood he had taken off upon entering the chamber, walked to the center of the room and called the meeting to Order.

"My fellow Order members," he announced, when all the dark cloaked strangers were clearly paying attention. "Tonight we meet for a special purpose-to initiate three very special people into our Order of the White Lotus."

The dark cloaked figures nodded in unison, but none of them said a word.

"I will introduce them to you," Iroh said with a smile. He beckoned Sokka, Ty Lee and Toph forward. "This man is Sokka, former companion of the Avatar and brave warrior of the Water Tribe. This lovely lady is Ty Lee, a warrioress of the Fire Nation who possesses great courage and fashion sense. And this young lady" Toph scowled at the young part "is Toph, Earthbending champion and teacher of the Avatar. They are all trustworthy and skilled at Pai Sho. Therefore I have chosen them, among all applicants, to join our beloved Order."

The White Lotus members all nodded again.

Iroh looked into the crowd and said, "Will Grand Master Piandao please come forward?"

Sokka's eyes widened. The crowd parted and a figure stepped forth into the center of the room where Iroh, Sokka, Ty Lee and Toph were standing. He lowered the hood of the cloak and it was indeed Piandao.

It took some effort for Sokka to resist giving him a huge hug and yelling, "MASTER!" But he did it. The grinning, he could not prevent.

"I have been giving the honor of administering the Oath of Entry," Piandao declared solemnly. He turned to Sokka. "Repeat after me, initiate."

Sokka had a feeling that Piandao, as well, was barely resisting calling him student. But then again, maybe that was just hopeful thinking.

Piandao began. "I pledge to keep the Order of the White Lotus's secrets…"

"I pledge to keep the Order of the White Lotus's secrets…" Sokka repeated.

"To preserve balance of the elements, to protect the Avatar…"

"To preserve the balance of the elements, to protect the Avatar…"

"To assist fellow members of the Order whenever they are in need…"

"To assist fellow members of the Order whenever they are in need…"

"And to play Pai Sho as much as possible."

"And to play Pai Sho as much as possible."

Piandao bowed solemnly to Sokka, and Sokka bowed back. Then Piandao turned to Ty Lee, and the process began all over again. Sokka was too excited to really listen. Was he really a member of the White Lotus now? And what would keeping his oath entail in the future?

A few minutes later, all three of them had said the oath. Piandao bowed to them again, and when they had all bowed in return, he walked back through the crowd. When he came back into the center of the room, he was carrying the chest that had a few minutes ago been sitting in the corner of the chamber. He placed it in front of Iroh.

Iroh cleared his throat.

"My friends," he addressed Sokka, Ty Lee and Toph. "You are now full members of the Order of the White Lotus."

It was still silent in the room. The other members stood perfectly still. There was a feeling in the air of anticipation, restlessness.

Iroh opened the chest and took out three small pouches. Each was a deep brown color and held closed by a drawstring. He handed one to each of the new members and smiled, a small, encouraging smile. "Open them."

They each pulled the drawstrings open and poured some of the contents of the bags into their hands.

Ty Lee gasped. "Oh my gosh!"

Toph had to finger the flat stones in her hand for a few seconds before she realized what she was holding.

Sokka gaped noiselessly.

Sitting in his hand were five round, white tiles, each with a flower engraved on it. White lotus tiles. The pouch was full of them.

For a moment he stared at them, and turned them around and around in his hand. Then he smiled and poured the five tiles back into his pouch. They made a clinking noise, hitting other tiles, and Sokka wondered just how many tiles there were in there.

He turned to Iroh, who said, "It is essential for an Order member to have white lotus tiles available wherever he goes. I have learned through my travels that far too often tiles are lost or given away until you no longer have any. And that is a tragedy. Not only because they are the symbol of our Order, but because without at least one of these tiles, your Pai Sho set will be incomplete."

Sokka nodded.

And around him, the other members of the Order broke into clapping and cheers. The chamber echoed with applause. Toph, next to Sokka, held her pouch in the air and shouted, "That's right!"

"And now," Iroh announced when the cheering had died down. "To welcome our new members into our Order, let us play a game of Pai Sho."

There was some confusion, as everyone rushed to sit at one of the Pai Sho tables. Sokka, particularly dazed, did not manage to get a seat in the end, though Toph and Ty Lee did. He groaned.

"Hey, I thought we were celebrating our initiation ceremony," he grumbled. "Won't at least someone give me a seat?"

Someone chuckled behind him. Sokk turned to see Master Piandao. "Ah, master!"

Piandao said, in an apologetic manner, "They're all far too interested in Pai Sho to give up a seat to a newcomer." He sighed then. "Too bad. I was hoping to play a game against you."

"Well, we've played before," Sokka said. "And if we wait, maybe we can get a table when one of these matches ends."

"True," said Master Piandao. Then he stepped a bit closer to Sokka. "Sounds a little boring though, doesn't it? Particularly on a momentous night like this."

"Well, what should we do then?" Sokka asked. "Kick someone out of his seat?"

Piandao frowned. "Student, you have gotten to be very aggressive since I saw you last. No, no need to steal anyone's seats. I was thinking…I know a very good cactus juice place a few minutes from here…"

Sokka raised his eyebrows. "You're suggesting we ditch? Aren't you interested in playing Pai Sho too?"

"The bar has a Pai Sho table," Piandao said. "Though it's hardly ever used. And these meetings can last a very long time if you don't escape early."

"Oh," Sokka said. "Okay then."

And so, while Toph and Ty Lee and Iroh and many other Order members were deeply engrossed in their respective games of Pai Sho, Sokka, newly of the Order, snuck out with Piandao to drink cactus juice, talk about adventures and think up crazy ideas that would later be implemented by Teo's father.

It was the first time, but in later years it would become a tradition.

AN: Thank you to all my reviewers! This is the last chapter, and it's kind of a relief and a disappointment at the same time. There are some plotlines here that I wish I could follow further, but the story has reached its ending point and frankly I feel a little tired.

I would like some reviews though, to tell me if I ended with a bang or a thud, if possible. This chapter was probably the hardest one to write. It didn't follow my usual formula, obviously, and I had to write the ceremony, which was a little tricky.

To answer a few questions:

Why did I desert the story for a couple weeks? I was busy. Also, I was procrastinating. This was a hard chapter to write.

Why was this chapter from Sokka's point of view? Because it had to be from someone's point of view. And I really like Sokka.

Is this really the end?

Yes, it is. And thank you so much for reading the whole thing, and for all the reviews. Love you guys!