Chapter Text
Aang doesn’t know how long he stood there, staring at the collapsed form of the Fire Lord. Probably too long, if the surprising and out of nowhere hug courtesy of Toph was to go by. He immediately wraps his arms around her and squeezes back, ignoring how sore it made him feel.
He was exhausted.
Suki and Sokka both join Toph. Aang relaxes into their hold. He was so glad they were ok. He looks up to see Iroh and Mai standing awkwardly next to each other. He gives them both a shaky grin, Iroh returning it while Mai’s eyes soften and she gives a curt nod back.
The group hug disperses.
Suki unhooks herself from Sokka’s side and peers over to the fallen form on the ground. “So… did you… do the deed?” she asks sheepishly, pointing down to Ozai.
“I’m not dead,” Ozai spits, half-lunging at the warrior. Suki kicks him in the shin for the less than stellar attack.
“Right,” Toph drawls. “I’m bringing Loser Lord here into the airship. Don’t want him getting all fire-y.”
Aang frowns. Right, they didn’t know. “He can’t bend anymore.” Confused looks meet his gaze. “I took his bending away,” Aang explains.
Sokka gives him a blank stare. “I will never understand Avatar stuff,” he mutters, before grinning and wrapping an arm around Aang. “Regardless, I love you buddy. So glad you’re alive.”
Aang gives a weak chuckle. “You too, Sokka. All of you, really.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Toph waves off while Suki gives Aang a bright smile. “Let’s get this guy on the ship and go see how Sweetness, Treetop, and Pinky are doing.”
“Pinky?” Mai questions as Toph surrounds Ozai in rock. Iroh stares at the shell of his brother.
“She wears a lot of pink, right?”
“How’d you figure that out, Toph?” Suki asks, genuinely confused. Aang is right there with her. He doesn’t think they’ve ever mentioned how much pink Ty Lee wears.
“I’m just that good.”
It’s as much of an answer as they’re gonna get from the earthbender, Aang knows. She slowly moves Ozai into the airship.
“I will keep an eye on him,” Iroh announces.
“Me and Sokka can steer, then,” Suki offers, taking Aang’s place as Sokka’s crutch.
He follows his friends into the ship and feels a wave of somberness and anxiety hit him. They celebrated a bit, sure, but now it felt wrong. Katara isn’t here. Jet isn’t here. Ty Lee isn’t here. He really hopes they are ok.
But even with his emotions, he finds himself sitting down and leaning on Toph, who does the same to him. Aang feels his eyes starting to slip closed without his permission.
Before he can fully leave the land of the conscious, Aang decides to ask Sokka if he can wake him up when they get to the palace.
“Sure thing, buddy,” Sokka calls softly over his shoulder from the pilot seat.
“Sweet dreams, Aang,” Suki says.
He barely hears it, slipping into a blissful, dreamless sleep.
Mai is the one who shakes him and Toph awake. Aang is slightly embarrassed to say he jolted up, ready for a fight, only to realize how close they were to the palace when looking out the window. And the palace?
It was wrecked.
Anxiety crawls up his spine as he pushes himself up and over to Sokka. The palace is a mix of horrendously burnt and completely frozen, though the ice has clearly melted a great deal from when it was first frozen. He sees a large white blob with brown stripes in the courtyard and sighs in relief. Appa was ok.
Now he just needed to make sure the other three were.
Sokka lands the airship just outside of the palace. Iroh opts to stay in the airship to make sure no one comes to free Ozai. No one stops Aang and his friends from running into the palace (or hobbling in Sokka’s case), which Aang decides to take as a good sign. He won’t take it as anything else.
They burst into the courtyard to see four figures. One is an eerily silent Azula in the corner, chained to a pillar. Two of the figures are Katara and Jet. They’re both kneeling over a third figure, causing the whole group to momentarily freeze. Mai is the only one who doesn’t stop. In fact, it seems she runs faster.
The rest of them are close behind. Mai kneels next to Ty Lee, who has Katara’s glowing water on her torso. Jet respectfully stands up and backs away, leaving room for Mai to get even closer if she wants.
“She’ll be ok,” Katara reassures, giving a tired smile. Aang wonders how long she’s been healing Ty Lee.
Mai nods, worry clear on her face as she takes Ty Lee’s hand and squeezes it gently.
The moment is ruined by Toph immediately slamming into Jet, who chuckles at the surprise hug. Aang grins and hugs him as well.
“We won,” Jet murmurs, pulling them closer.
Aang laughs, wondering why his eyes are just now starting to sting. “Yeah, we did.”
“Of course we did!” Toph nearly screams, breaking their hug. “You had the greatest earthbender on your team and you thought we wouldn’t win?!”
Aang laughs and Jet ruffles Toph’s already messy hair. “Right, how could I have thought that? How insulting.”
“It is!” Sokka sniffs, causing Suki to roll her eyes. “We’re the ones who made this awesome plan, remember? There’s no way we wouldn’t have won.”
Katara removes her hands from Ty Lee slowly, checking Ty Lee’s pulse. “I don’t know, Sokka,” she mutters, pushing her hair back as she stands up. “It was your plan, of all things. I think we’re lucky to be alive.”
Sokka grins. Aang can tell it's very shaky. He watches as the two siblings engulf each other in a hug and then fall to their knees, tears running down their faces.
“Hey! Weren’t you the one to call me the plan guy?” Sokka asks with a laugh and more than a few voice cracks.
Katara’s face is still buried in Sokka’s neck when she answers, but it's clear she’s fighting a smile. “Shut
up
.”
Appa walks over with a low. Aang grins and jogs over, hugging the bison's snout. Suki and Toph both walk over to join him.
“Yeah, I’m happy you’re ok too, Appa,” he tells his bison, burying his face in fur. There’s a lump in his throat he can’t seem to get rid of.
He turns around to see Katara turning toward him at the same time. He smiles at her and then walks over, encompassing her in a hug. She smells really bad. Aang doesn’t mind, he probably smells worse.
“I found another way,” he tells her, though he says it loud enough for the others to hear too. Aang doesn’t mind if they over hear this part.
Katara pulls back gently, not leaving his arms. “What?”
Aang gives her a crooked grin. “I took away his bending. He’s not a threat anymore.”
Katara’s eyes widen and he hears Jet murmur a surprised curse, not bad though. Katara pulls him back into a hug and Aang clings to her. He closes his eyes and finally lets tears run down his cheeks.
He cries because he’s exhausted. He cries because the battle is over. He cries because this ending feels too late, too overdue. He cries because he’s scared of what comes next and because he’s relieved that everyone is alive. He cries because he’s thankful for the present. He cries for every monstrosity he’s seen this past year and cries for the wonders he will never be able to see again.
At some point, he had dragged Katara back to the floor. Toph had gotten Iroh and Ozai from the airship and Iroh was lingering next to Azula, clearly at a loss of what to do with her. The Fire Sages are next to him, probably discussing what to do with the title of Fire Lord now.
Aang sniffs and swallows his emotions. They need to find a place to keep Ozai. They need a new Fire Lord. They need help for Azula and a place for Ty Lee to heal. They need an Avatar.
He stands up and Jet sends him an encouraging look. Just an hour more , the look says, even though it’ll probably be more than just one. It’s enough to keep Aang going though.
The Avatar walks over to Iroh and greets the Sages. It’s time to let the rest of the world know they can rest.
The war is over.
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Iroh’s coronation was… controversial, to say the least. The Dragon of the West? The guy who laid siege to Ba Sing Se for 600 days and nights? The guy who definitely does not have an heir? He’s going to be the Fire Lord? It’s not surprising how many complaints Team Avatar got for allowing this. Then again, it was less than the complaints for Iroh’s other decisions.
Usually, the Fire Lord had to be crowned to make laws. The Sages allowed Iroh to have one pass though. The law – er, more of a decree, really – was that former Fire Princess Azula must have psychological and mental help, resulting in no execution. People (mainly outside the Fire Nation) were not happy that the princess would not be killed.
Jet was… on the fence, admittedly. His last look at Azula was seared into his mind. Instead of the cruel mastermind he had come to think of her as, he saw a broken girl. But, she still killed Aang, so he probably didn’t feel as sympathetic to her as he could be.
Iroh’s second decree, which would be put into place after his coronation, was the biggest cause of controversy, though. He had only told Team Avatar but somehow word had gotten out.
Iroh was going to dissolve the monarchy.
He didn’t know what form of government would be ideal for the Fire Nation, so Iroh had not specified what form of government would be next. Sokka and Aang were currently researching different government types, Sokka even proposing to make an entirely new form. So, many ideas were being tossed around while the public freaked out over the rumor.
Oh well. Jet thought it would be good. He’s sure that Iroh would be able to execute the transition properly, especially with Aang’s help.
Ty Lee was healing nicely, even though she was still banned from doing extraneous activity. Mai had rarely left her friend's room. Jet visited every once and a while and apologized for mentioning lightning to Azula. Ty Lee laughed his apology off, saying Azula was unpredictable. He didn’t know that would happen.
Katara was healing Ty Lee or Sokka almost constantly. These last few days she had finally gained a break. It was helping the deep bags she had obtained under her eyes. More than once Sokka, Suki, or Aang had to remind her to take a break and eat. He’s glad this week was finally slowing down for her.
Suki had ordered (read: threatened) the Fire Sages to release her Kyoshi Warriors and to bring them to the palace. They would be here just before the coronation. It was nice to see the warrior so happy. Jet definitely feels the same about his Freedom Fighters, which would also be at the palace for the coronation.
Toph was helping Iroh determine who was still loyal to Iroh with her impeccable lie detecting skills. She seemed to be super eager to do this job. Jet thinks it’s because she can also throw them out of the room – literally.
Sokka was busy with research for another government system, of course, but also he had a map that he wouldn’t tell Jet what it was for. Toph had guessed it was to later search for his space sword and boomerang. Hopefully, he would find his beloved weapons, but only after he was healed. He kept moving too much already.
Jet’s surprised Katara didn’t freeze him to the bed yet.
Aang was practically a ghost. He was rushing from one end of the palace to the next. Apparently, the end of the war led to a lot of meetings with a lot of upset generals. It also didn’t help that Azula fired most of the palace staff, so Aang and Toph had to help him hire new staff members. Overall, he only ever saw the boy in the group's shared room at night or at meals. At least he was eating.
And Jet?
Well, he and Suki were taking turns being bodyguards. He was constantly guarding Aang, Iroh, or Ty Lee. Sometimes, he even guarded Sokka. Their shifts were basically wandering from place to place to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary in the place their friends were at. He was constantly working.
It was worth it though.
Jet never thought he’d be here, staring up at Iroh, newly crowned, side by side with the Avatar. But now that he was, he didn’t know where else he’d rather be. The path he was previously on would have led to the destruction of, well, a lot more than what was destroyed here.
But the Avatar and Fire Lord were in front of him. His Freedom Fighters were behind him. His friends and, admittedly, his new family were on either side of him.
Jet grins as everyone begins to clap. He sticks a piece of wheat in his mouth and crosses his arms. Aang meets his eyes, a humongous grin on his face. Jet nods, proud of the kid.
Thank the spirits for Airbenders .