From Now Until Forever

Disclaimer:  I do not own the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

~oOo~

The glow of the full moon that was just beginning to rise cast its cold light over the bleak and beautiful terrain of the South Pole, and Katara drew in a deep breath of the frigid air of her homeland, the homeland she'd returned to after...

She sighed quietly as the air warmed inside her lungs, condensing into a cloud as she exhaled, and she idly bent the tiny bit of water vapor into a tight little spiral before it finally dissipated back into the frozen air surrounding her as the heat of her lungs faded.

Air.

Every time that she thought about air she couldn't help but think about Aang.  He had been the last airbender until their youngest son had been born, after all, and from the moment she'd freed him from his icy prison so many long years ago he'd become her air.  She honestly didn't know how she'd lived for so long after cruel fate had taken him from her so early, because despite having been breathing for all the years since he'd stopped she felt like she hadn't taken a single breath in all that time.  

She felt suffocated.  And it had gotten worse the closer to her own time she'd gotten.  

But that was about to end.  It was finally time for her to move on from this world and enter into a new one.  That was why she was out here, far away from the beautiful city that had been built in the south as her tribe had begun to rebuild itself after the great war had ended.  She'd said all her goodbyes to her family and then gathered her remaining strength to make the journey to what would be her final resting place.

There was a sea of icebergs surrounding her now, but there was only one that was her destination – it was a place she hadn't returned to in all the years since she'd woken her husband from his hundred-year sleep.  

Until now.

Sadness darkened her blue eyes and aged face as she looked upon the place that had changed her entire life once more – the place it had all begun.  One might wonder how she could even be sure that this was the same berg considering that it hadn't been a stationary mass, instead floating freely with the currents, and was actually nowhere near where it had been when she'd broken it open so long ago.  And even its appearance had greatly changed, as well.  But she'd always known where it was...

Because she could feel it.

Apparently, after having cradled the young Avatar's body for a hundred years, a bit of Aang had permeated it and left an imprint of him in the very ice that had held him inside it.  And so she'd been able to feel it like a faint itch under her skin since the day she'd returned to where it had all started after it had all ended.  

She smiled faintly, her eyes a far fifty-four years away in time as she allowed herself to think about the beginning.  Just like it was happening right this very minute she could still feel Aang's slight twelve year old frame as she'd held him for the first time after he'd come out of the ice, still see his eyes fluttering open and capturing her from that very first moment.  Her gaze softened as his beautiful silver eyes flashed before her once more, unending love, reverence, adoration, trust, and devotion almost glowing within them.  

It was the way he'd always looked at her, from the moment he'd first seen her until his eyes fell closed for the final time.  When Aang's last breath had passed from his lungs she'd felt like she'd literally been ripped in half – and she still felt that way eighteen years later.

But now... as she drew slowly but progressively closer to the simple piece of ice that had triggered her destiny so long ago she could feel that gaping wound ease just a bit with the faint feel of her beloved airbender's very essence.  It drew her onward that much more the closer she got to the place he'd spent a century in, and she almost felt lighter and just that little bit younger again as she drew herself up towards the jagged edges of the hole that had burst open after she'd cracked the dome it had originally been.

It was strange, since she'd come here to die.  You would think she'd have grown weaker and more tired as death approached, but that didn't seem to be happening and she could only be glad in that moment, because it helped her reach the place where she would leave her body behind.

There had never been any question in her mind of where she would lay herself to rest after Aang had passed.  That was why she'd returned to the South Pole a few years after his death, though she'd never told anyone until recently as her strength finally waned and she knew her time approached.  At first her family had been horrified – this was not how the water tribe laid their dead to rest, nor how the airbender's had done it, either.

But this was how she was going to do it.

She crested the edges of the crater that was left and looked down.  Her eyes immediately fell upon one part of the ice in particular and she moved towards it almost in a trance.  It was where Aang had slept, that one piece of ice had encased him and touched him, and she could tell because it glowed faintly to her, beckoning her with a warm light that was so different from the cold light of the moon all around her.

It was him.

“Aang,”  she whispered, collapsing slowly to her knees before it.  She could feel him so strongly here, and her eyes fell closed as tears welled up and washed down her cheeks.  It was the first time in eighteen years that she'd felt whole and the agony of being torn in two had faded.  “Aang.  I love you,”  she breathed as she reached out a hand and touched the piece of ice in front of her with uncovered fingers and eyes still closed.

The cold made no dent in her awareness, and after a moment she laid down on the ice, curled up on her side with her hands beneath her cheek.  She could feel him all around her now, covering and encasing her in his protective influence.  With one last smile, the first and only wholehearted one since Aang had died she opened her eyes and looked up at the moon.  

“One more time, Yue, lend me your power,”  she whispered as she began to bend the ice around her with just her will.  The ice began to glow with a soft white light as it rose around her, and as her eyes fell closed for the final time a huge pillar of light erupted from the newly reformed dome as it closed, just as it had when she'd broken Aang from it all those years ago.  

But Katara saw none of that, and the final cracks closed over after she was already gone, sealing permanently and unbreakably and leaving the body of Avatar Aang's beloved wife, lifelong companion, and best friend safe and untouchable beneath the moon's protection for all time.

Yue looked down upon what she'd done and smiled.

Goodbye, Katara.  Go and find him, for from now until forever you will never be apart again – there... or here.

~oOo~

The final resting place of Master Katara became famous the world over for the story it told when it was viewed for the first time after her passing.  Etched somehow indelibly into the ice was the blessing of the moon spirit Princess Yue... but she'd left her mark in another way, as well – and it was for this mark that the story of Avatar Aang and his beloved became a legend that was never forgotten even centuries after their deaths.

The twelve year-old form of Aang was seated inside the ice just as he had been when the young watertribe girl had found him over eighty-eight years before, eyes closed with his legs crossed and his fists held together...

And the fourteen year-old form of Katara was held protectively against his chest, with his clenched fists pressed against her abdomen and her hands laid gently over his.  

Under Princess Yue's protective influence the two young lover's bodies rested together forever, just as their spirits rested together in the other world for eternity, as well.

For from now until forever you will never be apart again – there... or here.

fin