Creation began on 08-31-12

Creation ended on 01-01-13

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Future

A/N: Here it is, people. I hope that by the time this is over, you'll be proud of my vision. Sokka and Yue forever and ever!

A month into the new era of the aftermath of the One-Hundred Year War had shown some considerable change for the people. It would take time for the Harmony Restoration Movement to gather up all of the Fire Nation colonials and relocate them in parts of the Fire Nation, which had been discovered over time to be drastically underpopulated, as there were more people in the colonies than in the homelands. Peace treaties were needed to ensure that the Air Nomads, whom were reduced in the years of hiding to a near-extinct bunch, were kept protected from possible danger until their Air Nomad settlements were rebuilt. And while Chief Arnook of the Northern Water Tribe was shocked to find that Yue had been involved in her more-than-fair share of violence, nothing could have prepared him for the revelation that his daughter was able to bend water and air…or possessed a Flying Bison of her own that she named after her mother after discovering that there were some surviving Air Nomads.

And now, in a small room of sculpted snow and ice that retained heat, making it relatively warm, she was getting set for a tour of the rebuilding Southern Water Tribe with Sokka, since they were now in the South Pole and had seen it looking almost like the Northern Water Tribe city, only smaller and still being built in expansion by the Waterbenders. It seemed like things had been progressing very well in parts of the world now that the war had ended. Meeting the whole of Sokka's family had been, in a strange way, quite amazing, as his grandmother, Master Pakku's formerly estranged fiancee-turned-wife, Kanna, had indeed asked her many questions.

"Grr," growled Korra, standing outside the room as Yue examined her looks in the mirror.

"Okay, Korra," she told her bison, "I'm ready."

She got up and stepped out of the room, seeing the South Pole going through a great deal of being manipulated by the Waterbenders from the North Pole. To her surprise, there were some little kids from formally-scattered villages lifting up small globules of water from one of the canals being made.

"Yue," she heard Sokka as he showed up to meet her. "Wow… You look wonderful."

Sokka had dressed up similar to when they had first met in her home; of course, due to their presence in the South Pole, where winter weather was all the time, even with the change of the seasons, dressing up warmly was a necessity.

"Shall we?" He asked her, holding out his gloved left hand.

"Yes," she responded, extending her right hand, and they left to look around what Sokka had memorized of the tribe. "You know, my father thinks you should've called the Harmony Restoration Movement something else."

"Oh? But I thought it sounded so meaningful."

"Yeah, it does. He just wishes it could sound like it does. I told him it does sound like it has meaning because it symbolizes the movement back to harmony in the world."

They stopped in front of a canal that had been recently finished and it led to one of the mountains that the original Southern Water Tribe city had been founded near. It was also, supposedly, where the South Pole's original Avatar Temple had resided before the Fire Nation attacked in the earlier years of the war.

"It's so quiet here," she told Sokka, as they walked up the mountain pathway. "And we're almost so high up, we can touch the sky."

"Yeah," he agreed with her; of course, they'd been higher in the sky when on Appa or Korra.

Stopping to look down at the mending city below them by the water, Sokka had pulled something out of his coat. It was a small, blue pouch that contained something he'd been thinking about for some time now, but was wondering if it was the right time to act on the feeling he had.

"Grrrr!" Yue looked up and saw Korra hovering over the young couple.

"Somehow," she told Sokka, "I don't think we'll get much alone time with her being so close to me."

Korra landed on the side of the mountain and looked at the two, giving what almost passed for a smile that bordered on creepiness.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue chuckled, but then slipped. "Whoa, whoa!"

Sokka caught her arm, just as it seemed she was about to fall, but then Yue Airbended and regained her footing on the path.

"I think it'll be a while before I get used to that…completely," Sokka expressed.

"I know. The more I use either art, the more I forget that it's not a dream." Yue then patted Korra's head. "Hey, Sokka?"

"Yeah?"

"It seems like I've been dreaming all this time. Ever since the day I met you, back home. Even now (she turned to face him), it still feels like I'm in a dream."

He smiled at her; ever since the One-Hundred Year War was declared officially over, it was hard to believe that everything they went through, every hardship they faced…was almost like a fantasy that seemed so long ago. It was only less than a year, the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, when Avatar Aang had been released from the iceberg, and the two had been together since the ending of the winter season and the start of spring. But it wasn't until the start of the summer that they found out many things that were kept from the world in general…or were simply forgotten over time. Yue had even told Sokka that, while she and Aang were on a mysterious island that was actually an ancient-aged Lion Turtle, Avatar Yangchen's elder twin, Eli, couldn't forgive her sister for going against the Air Nomad disciplines unless the next Air Nomad Avatar could do the one thing she had ignored most of her life, and that was to never take the life of an enemy, even if they did deserve death. Yes, it did seem like everything was a dream in some way…and some people were just now waking up from it.

Sokka then placed the small pouch back into his pocket; it was something that could wait a while longer, as Yue wasn't going anywhere just yet.

-x-

"…How could we have overlooked this possibility?" Earth King Kuei questioned to the Avatar and his friends, a year after the Harmony Restoration Movement started.

"We had never expected this to be possible," Katara explained to him.

Even Fire Lord Zuko couldn't believe this! While many of the colonies had been removed from the Earth Kingdom lands back to the Fire Nation, there was still one colony locale, a small city in the western part of the Earth Kingdom called Yu Dao, that gave the Movement the greatest degree of trouble, mainly due to it being the very first colony established before the war had started. The primary cause of concern of there being another war was due to the Earth Kingdom people that lived harmoniously with the Fire Nation colonists there. Zuko had explained to the others that he'd been to the city after a near-assassination attempt on his life by the daughter of the city's current mayor, who was an Earthbender. There were families of both Fire and Earthbenders living in the city and they didn't wish to be separated from their loved ones…or their home that they worked so hard to build.

"So, just what are we supposed to do about this without the risk of war?" Aang asked them.

Yue looked at the world map that showed the Earth Kingdom and the locations that had been cleared of the other Fire Nation colonies…and Yu Dao's position as one of the only seven colonies left. It looked like, even after the previous war had started with the near-genocide assault of the Air Nomads, much the encroachment had taken place only in the west, right from the places that had been destroyed or abandoned in early to middle parts of the war in the upper-northern areas down to the lower-southern ones. Her eyes lowered in their gaze at one particular part of the map where her right hand had rested, as if she were seeing something about it that the others hadn't.

Sokka took notice of his girlfriend's odd behavior and uttered, "Are you okay, Yue?"

"Huh?" She snapped out of her gaze on the map. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

He looked at the part of the map where her hand rested, wondering about it.

"Say, Suki, didn't we get near this part of the Earth Kingdom when we went to stop the airships from burning it down last year?" He asked the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, who looked at the site where Yue's was.

"Yeah, we were close by," Suki told him. "Why?"

"Just trying to remember what it looked like from up high," he expressed, not sure why, but he wanted to believe he was onto something that Yue probably saw.

-x-

The one thing Yue was starting to hate about this new predicament with the remaining Fire Nation colonies was the strain it put on her days when she had to separate from the rest of the Gaang and return home to the Northern Water Tribe. While being home helped to ease some of the feelings she had when she had been away from the North Pole, particularly the homesickness, she felt that she had a responsibility to help find a solution to the problem.

"Yue," her father made his presence known behind her as she was looking out at the city below her.

"Yes, Father?" She asked.

"There is someone here to see you," he informed her, which made her heart fill with woe as to who it could be.

It was a lady, probably in her seventies or eighties, yet she seemed fit enough to be capable of running a mile if she wanted to. There was something about her that made Yue feel like she had met her from somewhere before.

"Hello," she greeted the woman, performing a curtsey.

"Hello, Yue," she responded with a smile. "I haven't seen you since you were seven."

"I'm sorry," Yue apologized. "Have we met before?"

"Yes, we have," the woman told her.

"Yue," Arnook expressed, "this is Kari. This is your grandmother."

As a memory from the past made it up to the Tribal Princess' conscious, the last time she remembered seeing this woman…was when she was seven years old, during the passing of her mother from a sickness that the healers couldn't save her from. Of the people present to mourn the wife of the current Tribal Chief that day, it seemed that this woman had also been devastated greatly by her mother's departure from the world of the living. It was then that Yue realized something she hadn't thought of in years since her mother's passing: She had relatives from both her parents' respective backgrounds, the maternal and paternal; her father's parents had passed away years ago when he was in his early thirties, meaning that Kari was her mother's mother, making her Yue's maternal grandmother. And maybe there was something she could help her understand.

-x-

There truly was something about the Mo Ce Sea that earned it its alternative name, the Lonely Sea, that Sokka found almost heartbreaking when he saw it from high in the sky. It was the ocean itself that separated the Fire Nation from the western regions of the Earth Kingdom, but there was something about that drew the boy from the South Pole to look at it more thoroughly. All he really knew was that he saw Yue's hand on the Earth Kingdom map and he was convinced that Yue had seen something that nobody else did, even if it was only for an instant.

What did you see, Yue? He wondered, as Appa flew lower toward the regions of the Earth Kingdom, allowing him and the others present, Aang, Katara, Zuko and Suki, to look closer at the lands.

-x-

"…Your leave of absence from the tribe sparked quite a change in things, Yue," said Kari to her granddaughter, as they went on a ride down the canals of the city.

"Yes. Father had told me when he had sent me a scroll when I was in the Earth Kingdom," the princess responded, having recently learned a few things from the elder woman. "Women here are beginning to learn other types of Waterbending, among other certain restrictions being undone."

As their boat made a left turn, the elder woman had to look up at the young Sky Bison that belonged to her granddaughter, which followed them from the air.

"She'll get used to you after a while," Yue told her.

"I never expected that the Air Nomads were still alive," Kari expressed, "and when everyone heard of the Avatar's return and arrival… I never believed that the war would end, that it would go on and on."

"I met people in the Earth Kingdom that also didn't expect the war to end, but they were more concerned with finding safe places that weren't devastated by the Fire Nation. There were those in Ba Sing Se, the capital city of the Earth Kingdom, that would delude themselves all the time into thinking the war wasn't happening until the coup that had overthrown the Earth King temporarily. And as for the Air Nomads… Everyone thought that they were all dead, excluding Avatar Aang, since they were in hiding and were able to remain hidden until the day we went to the Western Air Temple. I hear that construction of a new Northern Air Temple is to take place once the situation with the colonies has been resolved."

Kari, ever since she was a little girl, had never once believed that she, like her father, his mother…and even her mother…were descended from an Air Nomad that settled down in the North Pole over five-hundred years ago, during the time of Avatar Yangchen's days, the very same Avatar that was reported to have died at the age of ninety-two. To her, people were known to have exaggerated a lot of the time, and that many people of the current Water Tribe could've been related to the deceased Air Nomad that was Yangchen's elder twin. What really had her disbelieving this belief was the fact that, in all her early childhood years, she didn't possess the gift of Waterbending or Airbending, further discrediting the possibility that her heritage was mixed. But now her granddaughter, the Tribal Princess, had reignited the possibility that this was actually fact. And if the princess could perform both bending disciplines, then maybe it was because it was meant to be.

"So…who's the lucky man?" She asked Yue.

"Hmm?" Yue was confused by her question.

"Isn't that a betrothal necklace around your neck?" Kari pointed to her choker.

Yue placed a hand on the carved fish and explained, "Oh, no. This was a gift from my boyfriend. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."

"The elder brother of the Waterbending Master, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe?"

"That's him."

"The story and rumors of how he helped to stop that fleet of airships from burning down the Earth Kingdom has brought him a degree of popularity from the villages outside the city here."

"Really?"

"Yes. You must be very proud of him."

"Oh," she sighed, caressing the stone fish a little. "I am. I'm very proud of him."

-x-

"…It's the same with three of the other colonies," went Katara to Aang and the others, having discovered the degree of harmony between the Earth Kingdom villagers and Fire Nation colonists that had families of both nations. "I even met a woman from the Fire Nation who has a son that's an Earthbender with a Firebending sister."

"Sokka, are you sure what we're looking for is around the western parts of the Earth Kingdom?" Toph, who had taken time away from her school where she taught at least three students in the art of Metalbending, asked him.

"Yeah," he answered, even though he wasn't sure as to what it was they were looking for in the west, only that he was for sure that Yue was onto it before he was. "I wish Yue was here right now. She'd tell us if she knew."

As the group traveled to the next colony, the blind Earthbender wondered how her parents, whom she hadn't seen in three months after reconciling with them after the end of the war, were going worry about her safety this time due to the unrest caused by the last few colonies not wanting to be undone by the Movement's goal to return the lands back to the Earth Kingdom. While it had been easy to let go of the hate she felt for them trying to limit her freedom and control her for most of her life, the fact that they still worried over, even after hearing of her involvement in ending the war with her Earthbending prowess and her development of Metalbending, was still an issue…just because she couldn't see the way others could.

"When does Yue come back to the Earth Kingdom?" Toph decided to ask.

"The day after tomorrow," Aang answered. I never guessed that being royalty would hinder or even limit one's time.

-x-

"…Grrr," Korra growled, as Yue finished feeding her hay; the first time the princess' father made an attempt to feed the bison fish, Korra not only tried to resist, but, to Yue's surprise and disgust, she had a hard time going to the bathroom.

The princess looked out her window at the full moon, feeling the enrichment of lunar spiritual energy that made a Waterbender much stronger at night, and then at the water in the canals crisscrossing the city. Tomorrow, she would go back to the Earth Kingdom and resume her assistance in trying to find a solution to the unrest caused by the remaining colonies. The time she spent with her grandmother was filled with learning many things from her mother's side of the family that weren't considered possible due to the generational gap going back several centuries. One of the current things that Yue couldn't get off her mind was what Aang did to stop Ozai from taking over the Earth Kingdom, and that was removing his bending.

The Lion Turtle touched us both, she thought, laying down on her bed now, and Aang later removed Ozai's bending. Could I do something just like that? Take one's bending away? Why, I'd rather bestow bending to those without it.

-x-

Iroh knew the task to restore order and balance in the aftermath of the war wouldn't be easy for his nephew and the others, but was always willing to provide advice…and tea whenever necessary. The sight of people that couldn't see a solution to their problems, even when it was right there for them to see, was probably the most troubling fact of life that he saw most of the time.

"More jasmine tea, Sokka?" He offered to the Water Tribe boy.

"Thank you," Sokka praised him, holding up his empty cup.

"I don't think I've ever seen the Jasmine Dragon this down since the last time we were here," came Yue's voice, signaling her arrival back in the Earth Kingdom, much to Sokka's delight.

"The unrest with the colonies has only gotten worse than before," expressed Aang, as he and Katara were going over the map of the Earth Nation for the umpteenth time, not seeing anything they've haven't already seen before.

Since Appa was too large to enter the tea house, Korra, who was still tiny, could enter a little and sat down next to Yue, who took a seat next to Aang and Katara, looking down at the map.

"Hmm?" Yue gasped, looking once against at the western part of the map.

"Believe it or not, Yue, Sokka thinks you have the solution to our problem," said Zuko to her, pouring her a cup of tea.

"Maybe," she suggested on the possibility. "Before I left home this morning, I had to ask my father a question about the Earth Kingdom that's an obvious one."

"Which was?" Toph asked, curious.

"That the nation, due to its massive size and expanse of land, had a lot of space that wasn't in use by anybody. And I keep looking at the western parts here…and the last time I looked at it, I thought I saw something that seemed possible, but I couldn't be sure."

"What did you see, Yue?" Sokka asked, wanting to know from her, needing her to speak her mind.

"When I looked at the map…for a moment, I thought I could see…a patch of the Earth Kingdom from way up high…with the ocean water forming a shape near the land in the form of a crescent-shaped moon. There were also two islands…and I imagined one of them had a statue standing on it."

Sokka then took out another map with a more-detailed look of the Earth Kingdom's western areas and set it on the table.

"Water forming a crescent-shaped moon… a bay area, with two islands nearby," he uttered, pointing to the location. "But why here?"

"Well, all the primary colonies were built in the west…and if the Earth Kingdom has a lot of land that's not in use by anybody… Then, instead of removing the colonies and separating the families, maybe… No, you'd think it were crazy."

"No, no, finish your idea, Yue," Zuko told her.

"We gather all the younger colonies and relocate them right here where the older ones are nearby," she explained her idea, her vision. "And expand upon it, give it a different direction to follow. Water, Earth, Fire and Air…all in the same place…of their own, free will."

"Like a new nation?" Aang questioned. "A fifth one, separate from the Four Nations?"

"Yeah," she said. "It's crazy, isn't it? I mean, there's a reason why the Four Nations are as they are."

"I don't think it's crazy," said Iroh to them. "If people of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation descent are able to coexist in the colonies, then why can't people of all the nations coexist someplace that could be neutral for them?"

"That's likely possible, except the Air Nomads try to be as detached from the rest of the world as possible and acquire enlightenment. And it's still difficult with them trying to decide which of the other three Air Temples they shall reside in while the plans to construct a new northern one is still in progress. They're still not entirely used to others after the near-genocidal assault that was made on them a century ago."

"That…we'll have to work on," went Zuko, "but I like this idea of Yue's. It could actually work out. Let's take it up with the Earth King."

"Question," went Toph. "Who's to lead the potential new nation?"

"Oops," Yue gasped; as much as she liked the idea, the idea of leadership slipped her mind completely. The Water Tribes are led by their Northern, Southern and Foggy Swamp Tribal Chiefs, the Earth Kingdom, as a whole, is ruled by the Earth King, with smaller towns and cities governed by mayors and kings with little power over their territory, and they have to answer to the Earth King…and the Fire Nation is ruled by the Fire Lord…with the exception of a tribal chiefdom that Aang and Zuko say used to exist for the ancient Sun Warriors that lived before the modern-day Fire Nation.

"What about you, Aang?" Zuko suggested to the Avatar.

"No, it can't be me," Aang explained; as the Avatar, he was neutral to any form of government, acting in the interests of order and peace among the nations. "Oh, wait. Before the near-genocidal assault, the Air Nomads had a council for each temple they resided in. The Council of Elders. They served as the spiritual and political authority of the Air Nomads, making the decisions in the interests of the people."

"So, a council for the idea? A representative from each of the Four Nations?" Yue suspected Aang's theory and asked.

"Yeah. They could lead the people."

"The more we talk about it, the more I start to like it," said Katara. "I would just like to do one thing if we get people from the Water Tribes to like the possibility."

"And that would be?" Yue asked her.

"Outlaw Bloodbending," she answered with a firm tone, and that was something Yue could agree with.

"No Bloodbending. Period." The princess replied.

"Me, too," added Aang.

"Same here," added Zuko, never wanting to go through that horrid experience again, as being Bloodbent by the rogue Waterbender, Hama, hurt like a fall from a mountain.

-x-

"…I swear, sometimes, we don't spend as much time with each other as we used to during the war and the days that came after it, Sokka," said Yue to her boyfriend, as they walked around on the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se. "It's like we're losing touch with each other."

The Water Tribe boy sighed as he agreed with her; the setback in the Harmony Restoration Movement, the trouble with the remaining Fire Nation colonies, even the subtle homesickness that Yue had to deal with by going home every few days to remedy and make sure that her father didn't worry about her safety…was putting a strain on their relationship. But it hadn't caused too much of a strain that they would do the harmful, which was to break up. The Tribal Princess truly loved the boy, peasant or not, and she knew that he loved her, a princess or not. Sokka then leaned on one of the parapets that made up the wall overlooking the land outside the city, seeing the mountainous terrain that made up part of the Serpent's Pass, trying to decide if now was the right time to ask Yue what he held back on asking her last year. At first, back during the war when he arrived with his sister and Aang to the North Pole, he found Yue physically attractive, and as he got to know her later on, his attraction toward her expanded to unforeseen heights. He admired her personality, her creativity, which rivaled his own, her determination and willfulness, and her understanding of the spiritual aspects of the Water Tribes, which helped him to see that there was no magic involved in bending.

Yue looked up at the sky and saw half of the moon out in broad daylight. She chuckled at the idea of the Moon Spirit being a bit persistent in wanting to be seen sometimes; the day was for the sun, and the night was for the moon.

"Sokka," she then uttered out, "we should spend more time together when all of this has been resolved for good."

"Yeah," he agreed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small pouch again. "Say, Yue…when this is all over… When everything is resolved with the balance of the nations being restored…do you… Well, do you ever…"

She looked at him, wondering what it was he was trying to say to her, to ask her once this was over.

"Yes, Sokka?" She urged him to speak his mind.

With some new encouragement, he tried to finish what he wanted to ask her.

"I…"

"Grrrrr!" His question remained unasked, as the Flying Bison, Appa, made his presence known.

"Sokka! Yue!" They heard Katara yell at them from above. "The Earth King agreed with the idea!"

"Really?!" Yue gasped. "That's great!"

"Yeah," added Sokka, quickly putting the pouch back into his pocket. "Great."

But Yue had her gaze upon Sokka once more, wanting to know what it was he was trying to ask her…and swore that she would find out, even if it deprived her of her bending.

-x-

Sokka was quite a talented artist when he came up with the symbol of the new nation, just as Aang and Zuko came up with the name: The United Republic of Nations. Yue had to admit that she fancied the insignia that was being used: It was similar to the Earth Kingdom symbol, but the shape was altered so that it was sideways, came with a circle in the middle that seemed to be inspired by either the Water Tribes' symbol or the Air Nomads' symbol and also came with a leg on the left and the right side on the bottom. To her, it almost reminded her of a tree, except with two trunks instead of one.

The Fire Nation colonists were hesitant at first to go along with the plan with being relocated to the chosen spot where construction of the capital for the fifth nation was to be constructed, but Zuko, as the new Fire Lord, assured the people that nobody was going to be separated from each other, whether or not they were of Fire Nation descent or Earth Kingdom descent, and that some people from the Water Tribes were going to be living there, as well.

The Air Nomads, however… Aang had a responsibility to make sure they were protected and that their past history and knowledge was restored to them…and give the Air Nation back its future.

-x-

"…I don't think I've ever seen you so down in the ice for a long time, Yue," Chief Arnook spoke out to his daughter's current mood of boredom as he noticed her lack of activity after her return home a month after the news spread about the new nation being created, something that, while it meant cooperating peacefully with people of the other nations on a long-term goal and such, didn't seem to ease the Tribal Princess' relationship with the Southern Water Tribe boy.

Yue, looking out her bedroom window at the city of snow and ice below the palace, turned to face her father and gave a slight chuckle; she was trying to hide the minor ache in her heart that she got every time Sokka and she were separated.

"There's nothing wrong, Father," she responded happily, though she knew her father better than most others did, as he could tell when a person was lying to him simply by their tone of voice, body movements or by the way they gesture with their hands.

Chief Arnook sat down beside his daughter's window and explained, "It took a while, but we were finally able to reestablish contact with our sister tribe in the South Pole…and we're preparing for the New Moon Celebration that's to occur within two months from now."

"The New Moon Celebration?" Yue asked, having never been to one on account of the One-Hundred Year War crippling contact between the Water Tribes, only hearing about them in old stories.

"It occurs every few years, happening on the night before the new moon. Family and friends from the two tribes gather to enjoy the festivities of the annual festival."

Yue recalled the understanding of a new moon very well; it was the first day of each new month that, in her mother's words, 'cloaked the Moon Spirit's lunar essence, the very moon itself, in the darkness so that no one, not even it's counterpart, the Ocean Spirit, could find it until the very next day'. In a way, it was a harmless situation, the very opposite of what the Firebender, Zhao, had attempted when he led the siege to slay the Northern Water Tribe for good. She had even gone to the Spirit Oasis on the night of a new moon…only to find the Ocean Spirit, La, by itself in the pond. Tui's presence was still felt in the pond, but it couldn't be seen by mortal eyes until the next day.

The revelation of being informed of the celebration that was to take place involving the two tribes meant to the princess that Sokka, who was from the South Pole, would have to be there, as well.

-x-

The New Moon Celebration, thought Sokka, as he'd been informed by his sister that very same day that the Northern Water Tribe was preparing for the annual festival that would take place in two months from now. As much as I want to be with her, why do I feel such hesitation from making me do something I don't want either of us to regret?

As he continued to help dig holes and trenches for the first few new buildings that would help the fifth nation's presence be known for years to come, Aang, Toph, Haru and a few other Earthbenders were doing a faster job than he and the non-benders were doing, as they had made made holes going five feet deep into the ground and trenches that span at least a few miles.

"Hey, Aang," went Toph, bending up large piles of dirt over her head as she looked away from the Avatar and toward the Water Tribe boy, "what's up with Sokka?"

"He's just worried about the New Moon Celebration that's going to happen at the North Pole in a few weeks," Aang told her, bending a much larger pile of dirt up into the air and away from the trench they were working on.

"What do you know about it? What can you tell me?" Toph wanted to know.

"It's just a festival that occurs every few years between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Friends and family separated by distance come together to enjoy the time lost between them."

"Seems more like he's worried about seeing Yue again," the blind Earthbender expressed her opinion, which had the Avatar suspecting that she was close to home on that possibility.

"Maybe…or maybe he just misses her right now," he suggested.

"If he misses her so much, why doesn't he just marry her?"

That question, while unheard by the boy in question, seemed to affect Sokka, for he fell into the hole he was digging and let out a yell of pain.

"Ouch," he whined. Why me?

"Are you alright, Sokka?" He heard Aang ask him as he got back up.

"I'm fine," he told him, brushing the dirt off his clothes…and noticing the small pouch he kept with him at all times. "Oh."

He quickly snatched it up and put it back into his pockets.

"What was that he picked up?" They heard Toph ask.

"Hmm?" Aang responded, confused.

"He picked up something and put it in his pockets," she explained, pointing to Sokka.

"It's nothing," Sokka told them, wanting to drop the subject before it went too far.

"I can tell you're lying," Toph said in a singsong tone, playing off her ability to detect lies with her bending abilities.

"Seriously, it's nothing."

After the day of digging ended, Sokka sat by himself over by the water, looking at his small pouch after checking the contents inside. He was happy to see that the contents were unharmed, but it seemed to only add greater weight to his consciousness on what he wanted to ask Yue…but always held back on doing so. There was relief in knowing that she was alive and would, despite having been harmed twice by Azula last year, once fatal and once non-fatal, most definitely live to see old age (not only as a result of Aang preventing the murder of the Moon Spirit, but also due to the water from the Spirit Oasis having been used to save her life a second time she was placed in danger), but what he now perceived as a problem that needed to be resolved was the unwritten future between the two of them. Three, if you counted Suki.

While the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors hadn't been seen much since her small stay at the Fire Nation Royal Palace to provide Zuko added security when the unrest with the colonies started, Sokka couldn't imagine a future without her presence in his life, either. And while it seemed that she and Yue got along well, he knew that deep down, his relationships with the two were challenging right now. Even if things didn't go the way Sokka was hoping they would later on, he hoped that there would be no hard feelings between any of them.

"You want to talk about it, Sokka?" He turned around and saw Katara standing behind him.

"There's nothing to talk about," he tried to keep up the pretense that there was nothing wrong.

"You remember the day we all found out that Yue's engagement to this Hahn from the North Pole was renounced by him?" She asked him. "The both of you, yourself and Yue, seemed relieved to know that she wouldn't be getting married any time soon. But when you heard that some of the laws in the Northern Water Tribe were being abolished, including the engagement law…you seemed happy to know that. I'm not blind to what's really troubling you right this moment, Sokka."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. That's a betrothal necklace you have in there, isn't it?"

Sokka lowered his head and sighed in defeat.

"Yes," he answered her. "I was meaning to ask Yue back when we were in the South Pole…but I decided to wait until it was the right time to really ask her."

Katara sat down beside him and provided some comfort to her brother.

"You must think I'm pretty foul right now. Two young women that I care about, but I'm thinking about one of them that I… I really want for there to be an easy solution."

"Just…just follow your heart, Sokka," she encouraged him.

Sokka wanted to do just that, to follow his heart and not his gut; whenever he thought of Yue or even Suki, he rarely ate much of the time, even after a hard day of work. Even when Yue got hurt when they left Ba Sing Se after the coup had taken place and Azula had shot her full of lightning, he barely ate, too concerned about her safety and waiting for her to wake up to eat. He was grateful to the Moon Spirit that Yue lived after that traumatic disaster. He was very, eternally, grateful.

-x-

"…When you walk away, you don't hear me say… Lately, you're all I need," Yue sung, flying on Korra's back as the bison soared through the air above the mountainous environment of the northern region of the Earth Kingdom where some early construction of the new Northern Air Temple was taking place…where she had also heard that Jet and the former Freedom Fighters were there as security for the Earthbenders shifting through the ground to ensure that the mountains they would be using as the foundations for the new temple would be stable. "…Please…oh, baby…don't go… Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight."

"Grr!" Korra growled, informing Yue that they had reached their destination.

"Princess Yue," went Smellerbee, "to what do we owe the honor of your visit out here?"

"When I heard that the Air Nomads had found the spot to build a new Northern Air Temple, I had to see for myself if it was true." The Tribal Princess expressed, looking around the mountains and seeing how beautiful they were. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, we're just in charge of security," answered Jet, pointing to a few of the Earthbenders that took notice of the princess and waved at her.

Yue had also noticed the Earthbender known as The Boulder assisting in the creating of the foundations for the new Air Temple.

"Where's Sokka?" Smellerbee asked. "I thought he'd be with you."

"He's still in the western parts of the Earth Kingdom, aiding in the construction of the United Republic of Nations' potential capital," she explained, though she wished that Sokka had come along with her, if anything to provide her with company alongside Korra.

From a great distance, she could see the silhouette of the original Northern Air Temple that served as the home of the refugees of the Mechanist and his son, Teo, along with the sight of tiny shadows moving around in the air; the people gliding around in the warm air around the temple. Someday in the future, she hoped to see the Air Nomads, once Aang had taught them the ways of flying on their gliders, flying in the air as they once did in the past; since Aang had access to the total sum of memories of previous Air Nomad Avatars, the knowledge of making gliders and knowledge of skills Aang had yet to demonstrate to others were now his to pass onto others in the future to rebuild his nation.

"Say, the new Northern Air Temple," she then uttered out, "do you guys thinks it'll be like the original temple or made like the Eastern Air Temple?"

"I heard a while back that at least ten families of Air Nomads have relocated to the Eastern Air Temple," said Longshot, who, recently, was speaking a bit more now that the war was over and order was being restored, piece by piece. "And that the Southern Air Temple has been cleared of debris."

Yue remembered what the home of Avatar Aang had looked like before plans to restore it had gone into effect; the princess had seen the aftermath of the siege on her tribal city after the Fire Nation had attacked, but the old, aftermath sight of the temple during the war's earlier assaults were frightening. However, there was some ray of hope when they had returned to the temple to resettle: The snow had melted away, revealing spots where weeds had once resided…but had been replaced with wildflowers, and the spot where Aang had last seen his…his former guardian, Gyatso, when he had returned home a century later to find that much of the previous devastation had nearly cost an entire nation, a large tree had sprouted, bearing the Air Nation symbol, which appeared to had been part of the tree itself instead of being carved into it. It was like, as a result of the Avatar's return, departure, and recent return, life was beginning to return to the Southern Air Temple. There were even a bunch of lemurs that, while considered an addition to the flora and fauna of the Air Nomads' culture, didn't resemble Momo, but had a few of his traits, such as being able to fly around and were gluttons for fruit.

Maybe the Avatar possesses spiritual powers that enables life to be restored, though slowly, to certain places around the world, she thought, like how there was warmth in the Spirit Oasis due to Tui and La's presence back home.

-x-

As the war had ended, the Fire Nation's water-bound ships were only used for transportation of people and resources. The transportation of resources from the homelands in particular, as they achieved a recent overhaul in removing the war-themed pieces of the ships in order to remove the idea of war returning after one-hundred years of war. One of the resources being transported were samples of Fire Nation flora and fauna to the location of the United Republic of Nations. Another resource was the processed metals that were salvaged from the drill that would serve in the early stages of construction of the bridges.

"It was just an idea," went Zuko, overseeing the transportation of the resources personally, "but it's starting to become a reality."

Though, one of the things he really needed to deal with later when he returned to the archipelago was continue to find other innovative ways to use the metal salvaged from the vehicles and weaponry his nation created or forced the Mechanist to construct during the war. But one of the vehicles he saw some good, beneficial potential in was the airship design that had been modified by the former war ministers. All that was required was a bit of redesigning of the exterior and making it less fearsome. If anything, it could be used as a more efficient mode of transportation.

And hopefully, now that the time for rebuilding has started, the original Firebenders can make themselves known in the future.

-x-

Sokka got worried. Big time. A lot of time went by and it was now the night before the New Moon Celebration in the Northern Water Tribe. He was to meet up with Yue, but he felt tense. He wanted to stop putting off what he wanted to ask her after he had spoken with Suki a week ago to this night, but he got cold feet that he was trying to fight back against.

I've only been here in the Northern Water Tribe for two days since I came back, and, already, I'm hesitating in everything I do, except thinking and eating, he thought, waiting by the rendezvous point suggested by Yue, which was the Spirit Oasis.

He looked down at the Moon and Ocean Spirits as they continued to circle one another in their eternal dance. He truly meant to go through with what he wanted to ask Yue.

"Grrr!" He looked up and saw Korra flying down.

Yue, who was on her back, got off and touched the warm grass and greeted Sokka.

"Are you alright, Sokka?" She asked, seeing that he looked like he had recently gotten away from a fight of some sort.

"Oh, I'm fine, Yue," he told her, wishing he were more honest with himself when he answered. "Wow. You…you look so different than when I last saw you."

That, of course, wasn't entirely true; Yue hadn't changed since the last time she saw him. With the exception of her hair still being a combination between her original, brownish coloration and the snow-white coloration to show that life had poured into her when she was a baby, she was relatively unchanged by the short time gap.

"Sokka," she started, but then noticed that Korra was still present, but then decided to just go with the flow and ask him what she was intending to ask him. "Sokka, you remember that day we were on the Outer Wall in Ba Sing Se?"

"Yes, I remember that day," he answered.

"You were going to ask me something, but then the others arrived to tell us that the approval for the new nation was given. I want to know…what it is was you were going to say to me."

Now Sokka knew there was no way out of this predicament. The worst thing to happen to him so far after the end of the war was simply finding himself halfway back into the rhythm of the fortune Aunt Wu had given him about living a life of unhappiness and pain, with most of it being self-inflicted. But this was different. He was being asked by his love interest what he had really wanted to ask her, and he was finding it hard to respond.

"Well, what I was going to ask you was, uh… I…" He tried to get it out of his mouth.

"Grr!" Korra growled at him.

"I believe she's encouraging to say it," Yue informed him.

Then, taking a new breath of air, he said, "What I was going to ask you that day on the Outer Wall was that, since we care about each other, love each other, understand each other very well, and…because Hahn renounced his engagement to you on account of his injury and epiphany of his life…"

"Sokka," she stopped him, "are you trying to propose to me?"

The Southern Water Tribe boy then sighed and answered her, "Yes, Yue. I am trying to propose to you. Out of love, trust and respect. Yue (he then pulled out a betrothal necklace from his coat and got on his left knee), will you marry me?"

Before Yue could respond to his proposal, Korra went over to him…and then licked his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Eh-heh-heh!" The princess laughed at him before helping him up. "Yes, Sokka. I'll marry you."

Hearing that made Sokka the happiest he'd ever been, and he then hugged her.

"Grrr!" Korra growled kindly, and then tackled them both to the ground.

"Korra!" They groaned, in an awkward position now; Sokka was atop Yue and unintentionally had her pinned with her arms at her sides.

-x-

He never realized that fishing for his tribe could seem so troublesome. Yet, the fact that he experienced how cold the water had been when he fell in during the siege had not only caused him to suffer hypothermia for several days, but it nearly cost him an arm and leg, due to the Fire Nation armor he was wearing at the time he tried to stop Admiral Zhao was very weak in protecting his body from icicles and nigh-subfreezing temperatures. It was due to his…his failure in protecting his tribe…and his recklessness, among his other traits, that he had to renounce his engagement to the Tribal Princess; the epiphany he had, which was due to being jumped by that Southern Water Tribe boy, helped a lot to open his eyes to his own flaws. Hahn needed to change many of his traits…just as he had developed a fear of the ice-cold waters of his home once he had recovered from his hypothermia.

One of the things that had bothered him a little during his recovery and rehabilitation was that the boy from the South Pole had become something of a celebrity among the talk of the northern people; for a few hours in a week, Hahn had heard how Sokka had taken part in a failed invasion of the Fire Nation and actually fought, side-by-side with Princess Yue, who had learned to wield a sword and shield against the former enemy, then, with the aid of friends and allies from the Earth Kingdom, brought down a Fire Nation air fleet that nearly reduced the Earth Nation to a large mass of ashes. Now, he heard of how he was helping in the construction of a new location for the Fire Nation colonies that didn't want to return to the homelands. Hahn couldn't understand completely why this was so, but he had to assume that anybody like the boy from the South Pole was making a great name for themselves that commanded a degree of respect…and part of his rise to aiding in the end of the war started with finding the Avatar.

"Steady as she goes, Hahn," said one of his comrades, reminding him that they were returning to the tribe with their large bounty of fish, sea prunes, seals, seaweed, squids and crabs, enough to feed ten families for at least three months.

His left hand's fingers twitched from the cold air, and he kept his distance from the water on the ship; he wasn't going into arctic waters any time soon, but the New Moon Celebration was something he was looking forward to. There would be many torches and lights scattered about the city so bright, it made the night look like day.

-x-

Yue couldn't remember the last time she had kissed Sokka in excess, but this was the first time she had done so in the Spirit Oasis, right in front of the Moon and Ocean Spirits, who continued to circle each other in their eternal dance of balance for the world. They must've been kissing for at least an hour; the Tribal Princess believed this was the case because her bison had fallen asleep near one of the two bridges…and she and Sokka were on the grass…with her atop him. In addition, during their kissing, Sokka had placed the betrothal necklace around her neck.

"I think this is the longest time I've ever kissed you," she told him.

"Likewise," he responded, feeling like he needed to catch his breath after kissing for so long, but he didn't feel exhausted just yet.

SPLASH! GASP! They heard a noise from the pond, just before they locked lips again, turning toward said pond…and seeing…a young woman dragging herself out the water, coughing and panting.

"Oh!" Yue gasped, and Sokka and she rushed over to help her. "Are you alright?"

Helping the woman onto her feet, they noticed that she was dressed in what appeared to be a Northern Water Tribe wedding attire, one that hasn't been in use since the years of…Avatar Kuruk. As she was able to stand a little on her own, the woman looked at them and their surroundings.

"Am…am…" She tried to speak out, but passed out due to exhaustion.

"Come on, Sokka," said Yue, and they carried her over the bridge and toward the entrance to the domain of Tui and La.

Two guards saw the princess and the southern boy exiting the oasis and found them carrying a woman, and rushed to their aid.

"What happened?" The elder of the two guards asked Yue, picking up the woman.

"She came out of the Spirit Oasis and passed out," she explained.

The unconscious woman was brought over to the nearest healing hut and Yugoda was tasked with making sure she recovered. In the meantime, Yue and Sokka wondered how the woman had gotten into the oasis to begin with; it was impossible to enter the Moon and Ocean Spirits' domain by means of underwater tunnels and canals, the guards that helped them carry her to the hut were also Waterbending Masters under Pakku, and, due to her attire, the ice-cold waters surrounding the North Pole were capable of great harm to human flesh that wasn't protected by thick, warm clothing.

Unless, thought Yue, coming to a conclusion that couldn't have been impossible to accept, she was in the Spirit World for a time. But from the looks of her attire…she would have to be… Is such a person capable of such a feat?

As they waited outside the Yugoda's hut, Chief Arnook arrived after receiving word of this discovery from the younger of the two guards of the Spirit Oasis. Prior to his arrival, he had found out that nobody from the tribe, both the capital city or the smaller villages around the tundra, had ventured into the oasis, neither was anyone reported missing, meaning that the woman found was the only person they could get the truth from once she recovered.

"Yue," he greeted.

"Father," she she responded.

He wasn't surprised to see her wearing a different betrothal choker around her neck; ever since abolishing the marriage custom, the Tribal Chief of the North Pole had expected his daughter be in a relationship with the boy from the South Pole, even being accepting of the boy after discovering the cause of his daughter's hair change from white to brown and white, but never once able to comprehend how his daughter could survive a Firebending-based lightning assault that had been meant for the Avatar, even with the water from the Spirit Oasis.

"Any news on the woman?" He asked them.

"Not yet, sir," answered Sokka to him.

"Father, do you think it's possible she came from the Spirit World?" Yue suggested. "Her clothing does seem, somewhat, outdated."

"It's possible," he expressed.

Suddenly, Yugoda came out of her hut and bowed her head to Arnook.

"She'll be fine once she rested for a few hours," she revealed to them. "At first, I thought she had suffered an injury to her head, but after I tried healing her, I found I was wrong. She said her name is Ummi…and she was trapped in the Spirit World for over four-hundred years."

"Ummi?" Yue repeated, wondering where she had heard that name before.

"I remember finding that name in a book in Wan Shi Tong's library," went Sokka, recalling the information he acquired during his time in the desert library. "There was a woman named Ummi who was engaged to an Avatar born in the North Pole over four-hundred years ago. She disappeared upon arriving at the Spirit Oasis on the day of her wedding. According to the people present when it happened, something came out of the water and pulled her in. The Avatar tried to save her…but couldn't find her in the oasis after that day."

"But…the last Avatar born into the Water Tribes over four-hundred years ago was…Avatar Kuruk," Chief Arnook expressed, remembering the history of each Avatar born into the Water Tribes.

"This would mean…that this woman was engaged to Avatar Kuruk," went Yue, "but she was taken by the spirit known as Koh, the Face Stealer in order to punish him for not being attentive to his duties as the Avatar, which, as a result of the Avatar before him, he was allowed to step down from as the people of his generation were able to solve their own problems."

"I've heard stories about the Face Stealer," said Arnook, "but in each version of the same story, every time he takes someone's face, he keeps them with him. How is it that this woman, Avatar Kuruk's fiance, could get away from him if he took her four-hundred years ago?"

"Maybe we'll find out when she wakes up," Sokka suggested, himself curious as to how someone like this woman was able to survive in the Spirit World for over four-hundred years, whereas he was in the Spirit for a little over a day…and immediately had to use the bathroom when he was released by Hei Bai after Aang calmed the angry spirit down over the ruination of his forest home in the Earth Kingdom. "What better way to answer questions of curiosity than to hear from those that know the truth to them?"

-x-

Aang should've felt honored to be invited by Katara to the New Moon Celebration at the North Pole, but he got the feeling that he shouldn't have left the Air Nomads alone to attend a special event that happened once a year for the Water Tribes. Even though he wanted to spend time with Katara, he still had a responsibility to ensure the future of the Air Nation…and he wasn't even half-way there yet; all he had managed so far, with the knowledge of the previous Air Nomad Avatars, was teaching them the rights of equality and how to properly Airbend to create miniature twisters and enhance their speed and agility. It would still be a while before the elder Air Nomads developed the necessary skills required to construct gliders; for the time being, Aang had entrusted the teachings of glider-constructing to the Mechanist and Teo, who hadn't strayed far from the understandings of how the original gliders were made.

"Avatar Aang," a voice spoke out to him, but whilst Katara was with the others in the North Pole where he was currently heading to on Appa, he was the only person capable of speech, hundreds of miles in the sky.

But he recognized the voice as someone he had spoken to just once; it was the previous Avatar of the Water Tribes, Kuruk. Why would he be speaking to him now?

"Avatar Aang," Kuruk spoke out again, manifesting in front of the Airbender in a cross-legged sitting position. "Something has happened in both the Spirit World and the Northern Water Tribe."

"What has happened, Avatar Kuruk?" He asked his predecessor from the Water Tribes, unsure if he should be worried or excited.

"In the Northern Water Tribe, something occurred that forced Koh, the Face Stealer to set free one of his victims, my fiance, Ummi of the Southern Water Tribe. He has refused to explain to me what caused this. I need you to find out for me."

Of course, finding out why Kuruk's fiance was set free by Koh meant speaking to her personally once he reached his destination at the North Pole.

"Yes, Kuruk," he agreed to the request, and Kuruk then disappeared from sight. But why would Koh be forced to let go of one of his victims? That doesn't make much sense to me. He steals the face of any that show emotion…but he's never been one to let them go.

-x-

Opening her eyes to the rising sun, the woman known as Ummi felt rejuvenated after sleeping for what felt like the first time in a long time. She stood on her feet and stepped out of the hut, seeing several people setting up large torches for what appeared to be a festival that was to take place.

"Ah, you're awake," said an elderly woman's voice behind her, and Ummi faced Yugoda, the woman she saw from the day before. "How do you feel?"

"Better, thank you," she responded. "May I ask what is going on around here?"

"We're preparing for the New Moon Celebration tonight," Yugoda explained. "The first one in over one-hundred years."

"Why is that?"

"The Four Nations were at war for one-hundred years. It ended just last year, due to the help of the Avatar and his friends from the Four Nations."

"The Avatar? You mean, the little boy from the Air Nomads?"

"Yes, Avatar Aang," Yugoda then had to ask a curious question that arose from yesterday's events. "If it's alright for me to ask of you, Ms. Ummi, could you explain how you were able to leave the Spirit World after four-hundred years of being there?"

Before Ummi could even respond to that question, her stomach growled; the last meal she had was the afternoon of her wedding day over four-hundred years ago, and being in the part of the Spirit World that was Koh's domain hadn't helped her much in the centuries she was there. While those brought to the Spirit World didn't need to worry about the things mortals required in the living world, they were still the same as they were prior to entering the Spirit World.

"Perhaps a bit of breakfast before conversing further?" Yugoda suggested.

"Yes," Ummi agreed, and followed her back into the hut.

-x-

"…Grrr!" Yue heard Korra yawning as she woke up to the morning of the New Moon Celebration. "Grrr."

"Okay, Korra, I'm up," she sighed, rising from her bed. "You seem excited about the festival, as it will be your first ever."

"Grrr!" Korra responded.

The princess changed out of her pajamas and into her casual attire and took her bison to feast on the stored hay in the palace's animal pantry; while she found that she also could've fed Korra seaweed, the herbivorous, six-legged Airbending Master had a preference for hay and above-water vegetation. On the journey to the pantry, she caressed her betrothal choker several times to remind herself that what happened last night was real, that Sokka, who she was going to see at the festival tonight, proposed to her…and she accepted.

Even now, it still feels like I'm in a dream, she thought, echoing what she had told Sokka once before.

Meanwhile, just overlooking the ocean in front of the primary wall that protected the city from the ice-cold waters and potential harbingers of war, Sokka was awaiting the arrival of Aang, seeing Appa closing in, coming in low like they had when they first arrived over a year back. That reminded Sokka of the time he, Aang and Katara were frustrated over how long it took them to arrive to the tribe, even Momo climbing atop Sokka when Aang, due to the crankiness, suggested that Sokka lead the way to the North Pole.

"Heh-heh-heh," he chuckled. "Those were good times."

When Appa slowed to a halt in front of Sokka, Momo flew over Aang's head and snatched a piece of the seal jerky that Sokka was eating. This was one of those times that the Water Tribe boy disliked a bit during the war, but let it slide when the war ended.

"You're finally here," Sokka greeted Aang, who Airbended off of Appa's head and landed in front of him. "Something really unusual happened."

"I know. I had received a contact from the last Avatar from the Water Tribes, Kuruk," Aang expressed about his last conversation with one of his past lives. "Someone he knew from the Southern Water Tribe was released from the Spirit World after being trapped there for centuries after his passing."

"Yeah, a woman named Ummi. She came out of the Spirit Oasis where Yue and I were meeting at."

Sokka then showed Aang to the hut where Ummi was recouping, where the sight of Kuruk's fiance back in his lifetime brought up some memories from the Water Tribe Avatar's past in the current Avatar's mind.

Ummi had been helping herself to her third bowl of tentacle soup (after consuming a second bowl of stewed sea prune soup) when the Avatar of the Air Nation appeared. She had seen pictures of the one that defeated the last Fire Lord involved in the One-Hundred Year War, Ozai, but she had yet to actually meet her fiance's Air Nomad successor. She set her bowl down, feeling replenished with new energy, and bowed her head to him.

"Hello," Aang greeted her, bowing back. "I heard that you were set free from the Spirit World just yesterday. Is this true?"

"Yes," Ummi answered him. "I have the Tribal Princess and the boy she was with to thank for my release. Koh didn't believe what happened last night would ever happen."

"And what was that? What happened at the Spirit Oasis that the Face Stealer didn't believe would happen?" Sokka asked her.

"True love being expressed…and reciprocated," Ummi explained. "When Koh captured me, he decreed that I would never know freedom unless another couple from the Water Tribes, or a couple from any of the Four Nations, actually, came to the Spirit Oasis and expressed mutual affections to the point where they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. If that ever happened, the Face Stealer would have to honor his decree. That was what happened last night at the Spirit Oasis…and Koh had to let me go."

Aang turned to face Sokka and started wondering if he and Princess Yue did something that the Avatar didn't know Sokka was capable of most of the time due to his mild immaturity.

"Grrr!" They heard a bison roar outside the hut, and the proceeding sound of footsteps on the snow-covered ice floor.

"Hello?" A young woman's voice came from outside.

Yugoda went over to the door and let the Tribal Princess inside, along with her Flying Bison. That's when Aang noticed that the princess had a betrothal necklace on, recognizing its crude details, seeing that a lot of effort went into carving it, realizing what Ummi meant by true love setting her free.

"Sokka, you sly lemur," he called his friend.

-x-

Once Yue had been brought up to date on how Ummi was set free by the Face Stealer, it was around the time for the New Moon Celebration to commence, with relatives from both the North and South Poles meeting and getting in touch after years of separation, along with being introduced to relatives from the Foggy Swamp Tribe, whom were adjusting to the cold environment of the North Pole while visiting their polar relations. People were scattered about the city, talking of past and future happenings, children, both boys and girls, were running around, showing off their bending abilities that they were developing, and friends from many years long gone were reuniting over meals.

"…So…your mother's name was Kya?" Yue asked Sokka over a warm meal, making sure she got the facts of Sokka and Katara's mother straight.

"Yeah," he answered, barely touching his soup; talking to his wife-to-be seemed better than eating at the moment, until his stomach made his hunger known. "She was…a very kind and caring woman…who put her family and tribe before herself."

"I wish I could've met her," the princess expressed minor disappointment in knowing that she couldn't meet the mother of her husband-to-be until her passing from the mortal coil. "I also wish I could introduce you to my mother."

"Korra?" Sokka responded, which caught Yue's bison's attention as she rested beside their table. "Eh-heh-heh."

"Seems like somebody's thinking they were called upon," Yue chuckled, and scratched Korra behind her right ear.

"How did your father react to meeting Korra for the first time?"

"He couldn't believe that I had a Flying Bison, just as it was an icebreaker for him to know that I name her after my mother, also a kind and caring woman that put her family and tribe before herself."

Korra then rubbed her head against Yue's back as the princess chuckled again. Once they were through eating, they went around the city, looking at the torches and lanterns that were modeled after the Moon and Ocean Spirits, seeing people dancing to music, or how members of the tribes instantly formed new bonds forged at first sight or from years of friendship or interest. As Yue and Sokka saw Aang and Katara dancing among the people, the Tribal Princess suddenly noticed some torches the spirit of Avatar Kuruk watching the people, or to be more accurate, watching his love who watched the people dancing. She then saw him accompanied by another spirit, dressed in Air Nomad clothing and looking toward her and Sokka; it was Avatar Yangchen, who smiled at the princess for some reason that was lost to her. Just as she was about to wonder why, another spirit appeared, resembling Yangchen, albeit a bit older and with a look of happiness that rivaled the Air Nomad woman's serious demeanor, and she was dressed in Water Tribe attire, complete with a betrothal necklace.

Sister Eli? She thought, just as the elder twin of Yangchen uttered words that meant a great deal to the woman from the past.

"Thank you," her spirit praised Yue, who realized what she meant by that; the Tribal Princess had aided Aang in redeeming Yangchen in her sister's eyes by not crossing the line between sparing your enemy's life or ending them, putting the twins on grounds of forgiveness.

"Yue?" Sokka broke the gazing between them and the princess turned to face him, seeing that he was looking toward where she was looking. "Do you see them, too?"

"Yes, Sokka," she answered him.

When she turned to her right, she saw the one guy she hadn't seen in months: Hahn, who seemed to be watching her and Sokka. She thought she saw a look of envy on his face when he saw them together, but instead of making a scene, Hahn simply gave a nod of approval, which she returned with a smile and a wave of acceptance. It wasn't long before she pulled Sokka onto the dance floor with her, wanting enjoy the night before it ended, along with wishing to relive the dance they had experienced during their time in the Fire Nation.

"The torches and lanterns make it feel like it's daytime, Yue," Sokka expressed his opinion on the lighting around them.

"Because it's the night where the Moon Spirit's lunar essence is cloaked in the darkness of the night, we need to compensate for her absence," she explained to him.

"In the heart of the darkness, a light still burns… It takes you back there to a memory you've heard… In the heart of the darkness, she's still there…She's always holdin' on to what you share…Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close and help you understand? There's a future to this life…"The music in the background reminded the young couple of the previous song that they heard while dancing, and it eased away many insecurities right then and there. "The soul of the woman comes from a man… When he carries a burden, it never ends… In the heart of the darkness, when the night comes down… You're left with a promise love will be found… Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close, try to help you understand? There's a future to this life… And it burns in the night… There's a future to this life… But it's like a sign in the sky… There's a future..."
A short moment of musical silence swept around Yue and Sokka, who were looking deeply into each other's eyes, oblivious to the rest of the people that might've been watching them as they held hands. Even Hahn, who wasn't sure what it was that the princess saw in the boy from the South Pole, couldn't help but smile at the look of happiness on her face as she danced with him.
"Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close to help you understand? There's a future to this life… And it burns in the night… There's a future to this life… But it's like a sign in the sky…
There's a future to this life, oh… And it burns in the night… There's a future to this life… There's a future to this life… It burns for you and I… There's a future…" The song had faded into a musical silence, just as Sokka kissed Yue for the umpteenth time.

There is a future to this life that is lived, thought Yue, feeling light on her feet.

The spirits of Kuruk, Yangchen and Eli soon departed, at peace with the world and themselves. Things seemed to be going smooth, like a rock that had been underwater in a river for many years and was eroded of its rough edges, or the wind blowing through a forest of cave without restriction, going wherever it desired.

-x-

Sokka had to wonder if Yue ever got frustrated with the waiting of the United Republic of Nations' capital to be within a workable point where expansion could commence without his aid. While they had agreed on waiting until it was finished so they could get married, it had been five months since the New Moon Celebration…and Sokka felt like he was hurting Yue with the long wait, though she herself had promised to wait. In those passing months, several things did happen that were both believable, unbelievable and unexpected: Zuko, with the aid of his rehabilitated sister, Azula, who developed a clearer state of mind after her defeat at the hands of Yue, found their mother, former Princess Ursa, who had been amnestied as a traitor of the Fire Nation after Zuko became the new Fire Lord, Avatar Aang, due to a slight mishap with several people admiring his Air Nomad culture so much that they wished to obtain a better understanding of the history and culture of the Air Nation, created the organization known as the Air Acolytes that would carry on the teachings of the Air Nomads through practice, the establishment of the United Republic Council to govern the people that started coming to the slowly-expanding fifth nation, the near-completion of the new Northern Air Temple requiring the relocation of the Avatar statures from the previous Northern Air Temple, the outlawing of Bloodbending and the restoration of places devastated by the One-hundred Year War, in addition to converting parts of Earth Kingdom territory into prosperous environments, like the Great Divide and the Si Wong Desert. With the rebuilding of towns and villages destroyed by the war, several of the former refugees that immigrated to Ba Sing Se were relocating back to their former homes with Earthbenders of the former Dai Li organization as security, using their skills that gave them their infamous status to protect the people, as their former duty of protecting Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage was no longer in force.

"…I heard that Toph has been requested by many families to teach their Earthbending children the art of Metalbending, Sokka," said Yue to him, as they flew on Korra toward Kyoshi Island.

"Yeah," he responded. "After her success with her first students, her career as a teacher has become the talk of many towns. Even her parents are impressed by her achievement."

Korra, now almost two years old, had gotten a little bigger in the past three months, and was now sporting a saddle that was normally used on Buffalo Yaks or domesticated Polar Bear Dogs (as Korra was nowhere near Appa's height and weight to support a saddle like his yet). She performed an aerial zig-zag to get a few laughs out of her owner and the boy she was with.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue and Sokka laughed.

They soon reached the island and noticed people cleaning the statue of Avatar Kyoshi yet again. Landing by the beach and walking toward the town, they spotted some familiar faces from the last time they were there; Yue had to snicker a little whenever she saw the man that seemed to have an obsessive tendency to foam whenever the Avatar (or friends of the Avatar) arrived. From the looks of certain things, the Water Tribe boy from the South Pole could've suspected that some of the people were getting set to leave the island.

"You three took long enough," they were halted by the Fire Nation girl, Ty Lee, who had been on the island for over a year now.

"Sorry," Yue apologized. "Korra had to stop three times. She's not large and in charge, you know."

"Grrr!" Korra grunted.

"Ty Lee, are some of the people leaving the island?" Sokka asked her. "It looks like they are."

"They're hearing things about the capital city that's still being built," she explained. "They want to see just how united it's going to be."

"I just wonder how it's going to be in several more years," said Yue. "It's not big or anything right now, but it'll get there in the future."

"The future moves ever so slowly," added Sokka, "if it ever moves at all, like a Turtle Seal on land."

Ty Lee led to the island shrine where Suki currently was, reviewing the history of Avatar Kyoshi. The princess still had some lingering doubts that the last known Avatar of the Earth Kingdom had lived to be two-hundred-thirty years old, but since there were spirits residing within the mortal coil that were older than humans, she considered that anybody able to live past the age of one-hundred-five was either incredibly fit or incredibly lucky. Though two things she did believe about Kyoshi were that she had the largest feet of any person in history, based on the size of her boots, and that she was the tallest of any Avatar, based on her kimono. Entering the shrine, they noticed the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors standing in front of a large portrait of Kyoshi.

"Whoa," Yue expressed, seeing the similarity between the warrior leader and the island founder, just as Suki turned to face them.

"Nearly everyone tells me I look identical to Avatar Kyoshi," Suki responded.

"It's so uncanny, you could actually be her."

"Yeah."

"So…how have you been since the last time we got together?" Sokka asked Suki.

"Things have been quiet," she answered back. "So quiet, it feels like everything has slowed down. It's strange, but I miss the old days where we were making a difference, trying to save the world."

"Kind of like Toph when we were traveling around the Fire Nation," went Yue, "except without the hero worships and gratification all the time. Though, I usually just enjoy the traveling in the sky most of the time…and underwater, too."

With that, Suki was reminded of how, just a week after the war had officially ended, the Kyoshi Warriors had been shown the submarines built by the Mechanist and designed by Sokka as part of the failed invasion of the Fire Nation, impressed by the fact that it showed you the undersea world while traveling from one place to another by means of the ocean. And the submarines and airships were seeing potential in the transportation business of the world. Though, it would be a while before the Mechanist could make it so that Waterbenders wouldn't be needed to make submarines sink and float.

As they continued to converse, they had left the shrine and traveled down to the beach, where Sokka was requested to catch a barrel of fish for the village. This allowed for Yue and Suki to speak in private.

"…You must have the greatest degree of patience, Yue," went Suki, referring to her waiting for the fifth nation to no longer require her fiancee's aid in its construction so that they might start their life as a married couple.

"I believe it's like a degree of what King Bumi referred to as Neutral Jing, doing nothing, waiting and listening before doing something." Yue explained her patience. "Or, even though we love each other greatly, we're performing Negative Jing a little, avoiding unity until we can take the big leap of faith."

"Say," Suki was suddenly curious about something, "have you two gone and… Well, have you two…"

Yue noticed how the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors placed her palms together, and responded, "No, we haven't. I mean, we're rarely ever alone. And…we're not exactly thinking that just yet."

"Grr," they heard Korra yawn, turning onto her back after laying on her left side.

"Sticks to you like glue, huh?" Suki asked with a chuckle.

"She's like a baby; therefore she needs a lot of attention," Yue explained her bison's dependence upon her. "She comes with her own rewards, though. I love her as much as I love Sokka or my family."

"Yeow!" They heard Sokka gasp; apparently, an Elephant Koi had come close to where he was in the water and nearly cost him the fish he had caught. "I'm alright!"

"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" The girls laughed, just as he returned to the beach with his barrel of fish for the villagers, certain that he caught enough.

-x-

Later that night, after some encouragement by Suki, Yue led Sokka back to the beach, under the pretense of there being some large pearls near a cave. And leaving Korra with the Kyoshi Warriors until they returned with the pearls. Sokka wasn't so sure about there being pearls, but he was sure that if Suki said there would be, then with Yue's bending, they could get a handful of them to bring back to the village. Only Yue knew the meaning behind this search for pearls.

"Based on what Suki told me, the cave should be right about here," Yue told Sokka, as they reached a mountainside by the beach.

"Which would mean the cave is underwater," Sokka realized.

Yue then parted the water so that she and Sokka could simply walk under the water and reach the cave without getting wet, since Yue had been practicing more advanced Waterbending from other masters back home. Traveling under the small waves now, Sokka couldn't help but be impressed by his fiancee's advancing abilities with her bending.

"Ah, here it is," his train of thought was broken by Yue speaking up, having found the entrance to the cave, revealing that it looked like a crack in the side of the mountain. "No wonder the villagers don't come here often. It's not only difficult to get to, but you couldn't hold your breath underwater for the length of time we took to get here."

As they continued on, Sokka started to notice what appeared to be several clam shells adorning the cave walls, along with starfish and octopi, as though the cave were a secret hideaway or something. Yue noticed this, as well, never seeing anything like this back home. It almost made her feel a degree of envy that other parts of the world had places of beauty that befitted their statuses as part of the Four Nations, since much of the landscape back home was snow, ice and water, with very little flora and almost no places that allowed for an adventure close to home.

I guess it's due to the aftermath of the One-Hundred Year War, she thought, deducing that, because she spent the first sixteen years of her life sheltered by the icy walls of the Northern Water Tribe, and then spending several months away from home by traveling around the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, seeing many places that could change with the seasons, the winter weather of home wasn't so great after all that. I marvel the places that change with the passing seasons.

They reached a soaked formation of eroded rock that resembled steps and walked up them. Yue saw that there wasn't any water where they were rising and parted the bubble that conserved their limited air supply, revealing a dry, dark and large chamber that seemed to have minute, glistening sparkles. The darkness prompted Sokka to light a torch, identical to the ones that they saw belonging to those singing nomads the day they were trying to reach Omashu and had to go through the Cave of Two Lovers when flying on Appa wasn't an option, illuminating the chamber. The sparkling lights were revealed to be pearls. Thousands of pearls, in various piles and clusters around shells.

"Incredible," Yue gasped, inspecting a large pile, and then picking up a handful of them. "There must be over a million pearls."

Sokka and she then started filling up a pair of sacks with the pearls until Yue noticed another opening nearby, and went over into it. The light from the torch provided the princess with easy-to-see things, and found an open space that was, for lack of a better word, bare. Setting the half-empty sack of pearls down, Yue sat on the ground and rested. Her patience was great, but only for a great many things…and there were a few things she didn't have much patience for.

"This should be plenty," Sokka believed, having filled his sack with a lot of pearls, but left it light enough to carry back without having to stop and catch his breath. "We can go back now, Yue."

He turned around, but found that his fiancee was nowhere in sight.

"Yue?" He called out, seeing another opening that he hadn't seen before.

"In here, Sokka," she called back, and he picked up the torch and went into the chamber, seeing her sitting against a cave wall, her sack of pearls left by itself in front of her.

Catching him a little off guard, he noticed that she had let her hair, which had white mostly on the left side and brown mostly on the right side, down, and the upper part of her dress had been opened to reveal the upper curves of her sternum. Sokka felt his heart beat a little faster and his body temperature increasing a few degrees.

"Heh-heh," Yue chuckled mischievously, patting the dirt on her left side and ushering him to come sit next to her.

He obliged without question and sat beside her; maybe he was imagining things, but it seemed like Yue was masking a degree of impatience toward him. But he wouldn't make her wait for much longer. The United Republic of Nations was almost able to advance enough without his assistance and then he could spend his life with Yue. Then, he felt a hand atop his own and found that Yue had gotten a little closer near him. While it wasn't a total invasion of personal space, the lack of space between them was enough for him to realize something that had slipped his mind more than once right now: They were in a cave, beneath the water, away from others, meaning they were alone, something that seemed to be denied for some time ever since they got together.

"Suki set this up, didn't she?" He had to ask, just to be sure.

"Yeah," Yue confessed. "Are you…disappointed?"

"Um, no… No. It's…just surprising that she did this."

"I was surprised, too."

She leaned in and kissed him…and he wrapped his arms around her.

-x-

"…Grr…" Korra had responded to an instruction that Ty Lee had given, as the Kyoshi Warrior was actually trying to teach the bison calf how to walk on her front feet and stay balanced with her back feet. "Grr!"

It would've probably been easier if the bison calf had only four legs instead of six, but it seemed Korra was actually making progress; she had managed to pull off Ty Lee's stunt…for eight seconds. This made Suki laugh a bit. In the months that Ty Lee had been on the island, the majority of the Kyoshi Warriors had learned the art of chi blocking, making them a much more effective group of guardians and protectors of the island's people. As she looked out a window toward the ocean, the leader did a hand stand on her own, almost able to perform such a stunt with her fingers.

-x-

Sokka took his time, and he had good reason to. He'd never done something like this before. He might've heard of it, but there was a major difference between hearing about something…and experiencing something.

Yue stayed calm as he removed her dress, exposing layer after layer of her skin to the cool air. She hid her woes by thinking of other things, like the time they spent in the Cave of Two Lovers, how they got separated from Aang and Katara and allowed love to lead them out of the labyrinth, which also helped in leading Sokka to accept that there were always certain aspects of the world that simply couldn't be explained with a logical solution. She felt him peeling away the lower half of her dress, revealing her undergarments; she could've sworn that he shuddered from something as he began to remove the garments off her torso. She looked up at him and saw why; it was due to the shame he still felt that, while she recovered completely in the year following the end of the war, what remained of her chest injury was a tiny, bruise-like marking similar to an upside-down star, in between her breasts. And on her back was another bruise-like marking with a star that was upright.

"Sokka," she uttered, reaching up and caressing his left cheek, "it's okay. I'm fine."

He nodded in acceptance and kissed her again, putting her back down as he removed the rest of her garments before removing his own.

Yue stole a glimpse at his back and was impressed at muscle tone he had developed from all the working he had did in developing the fifth nation that would unite the people. Then again, all the running and traveling had been a workout enough for him.

Sokka then began caressing her legs with his hands, progressing upward until he reached her bosom…and placed his mouth on her right breast.

"Ah!" She gasped; his breath was warm on her skin, and she grabbed his back, holding him closely.

She soon felt his left hand (as his right hand was being used to hold her by the side) slip in between her legs, reaching around the moist, dampness that she had. Then, as though possessed, she flipped him onto his back and got on top of him, kissing him below his chin.

"Yue!" He gasped, feeling her fingernails at his shoulder blades. "I… More, please!"

She reached down between them and grabbed him…

"Aaahh!" He gasped, and pushed her back to kiss her again. "Mmmm!"

The princess let him pin her down for a while, but then, after several moments, she pinned him back down. She had lost her hair loopies in the last toss for control, letting her brown and white hair down.

"We haven't even gotten to what I heard is the best yet," she expressed, reaching down to him again.

"Aaah!" He gasped, unsure of how many times she was going to touch him down there in the future.

"You're big," she said, sounding seductive. "Really big."

"Yue…" He shuddered, and then felt something surrounding him as his lover…lowered down onto him. "Yue…"

Yue felt him pressing up against what felt like a wall or something inside her and lowered herself completely onto him, causing what felt like a burst of ooze inside her belly.

"Aaaah!" Sokka gasped, not expecting a degree of pain.

"Aaaah!" Yue gasped, feeling her own pain subside. "Sokka…does it feel…good for you?"

"Yes, Yue," he answered her, feeling the pain cease now, "but it also feels strange. It's…warm and sticky, unlike anything I've ever experienced before."

Yue shifted her body forward, lowering her head to his chest and bit one of his nipples, sending a painful-yet-pleasurable sensation to his brain.

"Don't hold back on me, Sokka," she told him, raising herself up to face him. "Give me your all. Your best…and your worst. All of it."

He rose up and held her by her shoulders, kissed her again, with much greater passion than ever before, and then lowered her to her back. They…they were harmonized now, united in a strange way. Bracing himself with his palms on either side of her head, he slowly pulled out…and then pushed it back in with a grunt, causing Yue to react with a small shake.

"Yue…does it…feel good…for you?" He asked as he thrust in and out of her.

"If it…feels good for you…it feels good…for me," she responded, smiling up to him. "Knowing that it makes you feel good…really…exhilarates me."

No longer feeling any pain, Sokka went faster, as if under someone else's control, with a fear that he might hurt Yue in his passion.

"Yue, I…I…can't stop," he panted, and felt her legs wrap around his sides as she raised her hands to hold his head. "I…I…"

"Give it all to me, Sokka," she panted in response, feeling herself tighten around him. "Sokka… Aaaah… Aaaaah!"

"Aaaaurgh!" Sokka exploded, right in time for Yue to pull her legs down on him, driving him further into herself.

"It's…all flowing…out your…" Yue felt like she had the wind knocked out of her, but she was smiling happily, which meant it was good that she did feel that, and then felt Sokka's head fall on her breasts, exhausted and drained of energy. "Wow."

As Sokka caught his breath, he felt like a river inside him had flooded and overflowed over everything nearby. All that he had…just flowed out. It all flowed out and mingled with Yue's. He rolled over to her left and sighed, looking at her, who looked back at him, smiling. They then kissed again and embraced, drifting off into a slumber that had been just around the corner for them.

-x-

The rising sun gave the beach shore of Kyoshi Island a magnificent beauty that seemed equal only to the sky's colors that changed with the rising and setting of the sun itself. As Suki walked with Korra on the sand, the bison calf had managed to pull off a Ty Lee, walking on her front legs and balancing with her hind legs, managing to use her middle legs to aid in the balancing act.

"Grrr!" She growled.

"Heh-heh!" Suki laughed.

Korra then looked out at the water and saw it parting, revealing a pair of familiar faces, which made her very happy.

Sokka and Yue came out of the water, carrying sacks filled with pearls, and from the looks of things, the Tribal Princess' dress seemed off in a way, and Suki found this was because she was wearing Sokka's coat.

"There were a lot of pearls in that cave," Yue expressed, setting her sack down on the sand. "I believe the villagers will be most pleased."

"Very," Suki responded.

"Ah!" Sokka cried out, falling into the water. "I'm okay."

"Ah-heh-heh!" The girls giggled.

-x-

Epilogue

Many years passed by, almost like taking a large leap through time. A lot happened in decades that came and went: The United Republic of Nations became a beacon of unity between the people of the Four Nations, both benders and non-benders, Avatar Aang and Katara got married had at least three children, Sokka and Yue were married three weeks after Republic City had been built enough that Sokka wasn't needed as much any further, but he still came to aid in its construction and reputation every now and then, and the couple were blessed with four children. Fire Lord Zuko was married to his sweetheart, Mai for several years before having a daughter that succeeded Zuko, who passed the position of Fire Lord to her and went on to travel the world, and the blind Earthbender, Toph Beifong, master behind Metalbending, had, despite many surprises from everybody, had a daughter with The Duke (even Toph didn't want to explain why she decided to date him when he got educated after the war ended). Eight years after they were married, Aang went and built Air Temple Island as a home for his family and the Air Nomads and Air Acolytes that would reside there with the Flying Bison herd and Winged Lemurs. Suki, despite everything, including her relationship with Sokka, stayed on Kyoshi Island to protect the people from danger with her fellow warriors, though during the years of Republic City's expansion and the rebuilding of many towns and villages of the Earth Kingdom, she had a son named Taka, but she never would say who his father was, although some of the people could swear that was a resemblance between him and another man they met years ago; there was something about the way Taka would either throw things or fall and hurt himself when he practiced Earthbending.

In the Northern Water Tribe, an elderly woman, looking well over one-hundred-twenty years old, had just set down one of her annual offerings to the Moon and Ocean Spirits, accompanied by a large bison.

"Grrr!" The bison growled, just as the woman slowly rose back up onto her feet.

"Don't worry," she sighed, feeling a little weak, "I'm okay, sweetie."

"Lady Yue?" A young man, well into his early-thirties, with short, brown hair and a beard and mustache, entered the Spirit Oasis and knelt before her. "We have just received word from the Southern Water Tribe."

"Oh?" The woman, an older Yue, responded.

"Well, as you know, almost five years ago, Avatar Aang passed away in his sleep after reaching the age of one-hundred-thirty-two…" The man said, but then Yue kindly interrupted him.

"Two-hundred-thirty-two," she stated, "as he was trapped in an iceberg for one-hundred years, remaining as he was the day he got stuck."

"Right. Two-hundred-thirty-two, marking him as the oldest known male Avatar. Just recently, word is from the South Pole is that the new Avatar was found."

"Oh? Really? Who is it?"

"It's…your great-granddaughter, Korra," the man revealed.

"My great-granddaughter, the only daughter of my youngest grandson of my youngest daughter and her husband? Are you sure?"

"Yes. The rest of your family have already been informed."

Yue smiled and said she would be home shortly, and the man left her and her bison alone.

"Korra," she addressed her bison, "do you think Sokka would be proud if he were here?"

"Grr," Korra growled, softly brushing her head against her lifelong companion.

Yue, who had gone from being a princess to a wife and mother…straight to a widow after eighty years of a happy marriage, had to wonder if her husband, who died protecting her and the people of Republic City from a ruthless Bloodbender named Yakone, after spending fifteen years mastering Waterbending, a gift she had bestowed upon him later in their marriage after she got around discovering that she, like Aang, could transfer knowledge of bending…or take bending away. There wasn't a single day that went by that she mourned his passing, just as they had mourned Suki's passing; there were times when they were still young where she tried to suggest to Suki that she come live with them at the North Pole, but every time Suki declined, still loving Sokka, but not wanting to come between her and him, even when Yue stated, in all her honesty, that she had never come between them, as there was nothing to hide between them. And then Suki passed away from old age, leaving Taka alone. Well, not truly alone; one of Yue and Sokka's children, their first daughter, an Airbender named Sora, went with him to travel the world outside the boundaries of Kyoshi Island.

"Still…I haven't seen since she was just a two-year-old," Yue cheered up, looking at the brighter side of her life while she still lived. "We should go see her sometime, huh?"

"Grr!" Korra growled, and then they left the Spirit Oasis to return home.

The End…or is it?

A/N: What do you think? Was it good for you? I'm not entirely good with lemons, despite reading them, so I can't be sure if any of you will enjoy it. Please review the final chapter. I might just get around writing a second Avatar story since much of it changed the ending. Happy New Year!