Well, it's been a blast, guys! Enjoy the last chapter of DotS!

V40.2

Epilogue

There were no interruptions.

I could hear a butter-bird outside, flitting its wings as it looked for nectar. I could hear the leaves rustling against their branches; feel the life force of each and every bud as they tried to grow. The one smell that stood out above all others was the aroma of ginseng tea: Iroh was in the palace somewhere. The pollen of a narcissus flower blew in through my open window and around the room.

I could feel the sun on my back as it shone in through my window. It gave me power. It gave me the absolute control over my senses. Sometimes even my surroundings.

My state of meditation was almost complete. I just had to concentrate on calming my aura and then the girl to my left gave out a huff.

I tried to control my face because I was sure that she was watching me closely. "Is meditation that boring to you, Izumi?"

"No ma'am," she sighed, shuffling around in a way that betrayed what she said. "I just...I have a lot of studying to get done and I still don't see much point in this."

My daughter was smart. Incredibly so. Enough that she got into Ba Sing Se University at the young age of fourteen. She got her doctorate at eighteen and was ready to take over the nation in her father's place. The only thing missing was a husband so that she could continue my line. If there was going to be a line.

Zuko and I had tried for years to conceive again. We'd never had another child. We'd never conceived the next Sun Spirit and my fertile days were close to over. I was too old to be carrying children. So the Sun Spirit line ended with me. Hopefully that meant that the world wouldn't end when I died.

"When you're going crazy and freaking out about the state of the world, you'll thank me for teaching you to meditate. Although you don't quite have it down yet."

"Can I go study, mother? The sages won't let me take over father's position until I have every Fire Lord memorized frontwards and backwards."

Always so formal. I opened my eyes and stared into my daughter's yellow eyes, much like mine. Her face was long, like her father's. Stern, almost like my mother. But she was undoubtedly beautiful. "Izumi, you and I both know that you've had the Fire Lords memorized since you were five. Maybe even before then." She was much smarter than me or even Zuko. I wondered if she got it from my father. So far she hasn't gotten his temper. In fact she was overly-calm. Like Zuko's mom used to be.

It was so hard not to look at her and see everything that had come before. "Fine," I sighed, staring up at the tall, domed ceiling. Izumi smiled and I saw myself in her face. "But first you need to practice with your father."

"That," she said with a flourish as she stood up, "I can do." She walked out in her long, splendid robes through the hallways she'd grown up in.

"She'll learn one day."

I turned to see Iroh standing in the other entrance to my meditation room. "I knew I smelled your tea old man." I hadn't seen him for a few weeks. He'd been out exploring the spirit wilds, trying to connect with the spirits. I would have gone with him but life never stopped for the Fire Lady-slash-Sun Spirit. He was a little scrawnier as I hugged him. A little more ragged as I stared into his face. "How was your vacation?"

"Beautiful. Your thrice-great grandmother sends her regards." He patted me on the back a little to harshly and I held on a little too long. When he pulled back, he smiled a little too sadly. "Your daughter is brilliant. Tactical and calm. Her only downfall is that her brain never shuts off. Eventually she should be able to do just that."

We walked through the halls, talking about his adventures and my life. We walked towards the training room because Iroh wanted to see how Izumi's firebending was coming along. Obviously she was good - she was a descendant of mine, after all. We got there just in enough time to see her body thrown across the room. Clinical, murderous eyes looked up as my daughter clenched her jaw. She got up and dusted herself off, slowly moving forwards in an almost mantis-like way.

Zuko had his back to me. He had his shirt off, his muscles bulging as he concentrated hard on our daughter's movements. Then he dodged a shadow, a bit of cloth that should have been our daughter but was as stealthy as the woman who taught her. I wasn't a fan of Mai but that woman could move silently and quietly and she'd taught my daughter well.

Zuko rolled to the ground and dodged it. A kick of his foot sent a distraction stream of fire towards her. She let it fool her and the Fire Lord took advantage of it. He stood up and sent a blast at her so powerful that I could feel the heat from where I was standing thirty yards away.

Izumi's eyes widened. She tried to give a replying shot but it was too late. She stood her ground though and waited for whatever was coming, a frown of disapproval on her face.

The fire dispersed before it hit her. Zuko stretched and my mouth went dray, walking towards our daughter with a smile on his handsome face. He looked down on her with a smug smile that she returned with a grimace. "I think you did better that time," Zuko said, trying to keep back a chuckle.

Our daughter rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Right."

The edges of his mouth quivered. "No, I'm serious. You got so close to me that I swear the hair on my arms was burned. I swear."

"You've had thirty more years of training than me," she grimaced, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned to leave. Zuko immediately followed her, a look of worry and guilt on his face. "And you played dirty."

"Izumi," Zuko sighed as if this happened all the time. Which it did. He tried to teach her that not everyone played by the rules like her.

She moved to a side table where her glasses lay, putting them onto her delicate nose. "If you'll excuse me, the Fire Sages want to run some more tests."

I clenched my jaw and stepped in. I was tired of them running our lives. "No. No more tests."

"Emiko," Zuko said with a sigh, as if it also happened all the time. It did. "They just want to check -"

"I'm not like Mom," Izumi said as she spoke up. We looked to her in awe and Iroh even raised an eyebrow. "But they need to be comforted. They need the assurance that I'm not the next spirit. And I'm okay if I'm not. Mom, you've known since I was born. It's just taking them a little bit longer."

I was always in shock at how adult and grown up my daughter was. At how much she saw. At twenty, I was struggling to be a Fire Lady in a land torn by a war that I helped end. At twenty-five, I was a mother with no mother to guide me. And now I had a beautiful, strong daughter who could take care of herself. Who knew what was going on in the world. Was she a little naive? Yes. We all were, just a little.

"You've raised a spectacular child," Iroh whispered, squeezing my shoulder.

I placed my hand over his and breathed out, watching my beautiful daughter leave the room. Soon, she'd be the Fire Lord. Soon she'd be marrying that scientist from University. Soon she'd have her own babies and be ruling a fourth of the world. So many things in her life could have and would go wrong, but for now...for now it was good to know that I'd raised a good kid. "Thank Agni for small miracles."