Chapter Text
“Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?”
“Ready for the next life?”
“The... next life?”
“Yes.”
“But I’m not finished.”
“Finished with what?”
“Helping them… the villagers… I don’t know if I finished.”
“You did, the river is clean.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear.”
“So are you ready now?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“There’s still… there’s still more people that I need to help.”
“Why do you need to help them?”
“Do you need a reason for helping others? I just… I just want to do whatever I can.”
“Even if that means forfeiting your life?”
“Yes.”
“...”
“I’m dead, aren’t I?”
“You are.”
“Oh…”
“Do you regret it? If you never helped them, you would still be alive. You would be able to see your family, your friends, your friend that was almost more… Won’t you miss them?”
“Of course I will miss them. I love them.”
“So do you regret it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I had to help those people. More would have died if I didn’t go. I needed to go.”
“Why you? Why not wait?”
“Because I never, ever, turn my back on people who need me.”
“I see… Are you ready for the next life now, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe?”
“I don’t know… Will I still be able to help others?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m ready.”
___
When she opens her eyes, she’s no longer just Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.
No, now she is the nameless Spirit of a river, now she is the Priestess Jiang of Jang Hui who drowned herself in that very river to escape an unwanted marriage, and now she is the original Painted Lady who was born from Jiang’s sorrow and has watched over the Fire Nation’s outer islands long before they were Fire Nation. Admired by the Spirit for her compassionate heart, her predecessor relinquished her place in the Spirit World, and moved beyond the plane of existence. Blessed with her abilities, position and memory, now Katara is the Painted Lady.
She blinks a few times, staring up at the aurora flickering above her in a night sky. The blues and greens shimmer through the flowered trees that make up the canopy above her. Plum blossoms, the new memories inform her, plum blossoms and wisteria trees. Closing her eyes, she inhales the floral scent and crunches the snow covered ground between her fingers. It’s not cold. She’s probably never going to be cold ever again. She exhales.
“Katara,” a vaguely familiar voice calls her name. She turns to be greeted by a luminous smile. Out of all of her lives, Katara is still the one who knows her best.
“Yue.”
The Moon Spirit beams, as she bends over offering a hand to help Katara sit up. She’s older in appearance now, closer to the age Katara was when she passed, and even more stunning. Katara doesn’t think she needs to breathe anymore, but Yue causes her to lose her breath nonetheless.
She waits for Katara to finish patting off her black and white robes, before handing over her veiled hat. “I know this is not what you expected, Katara, but I must say that I’m happy to have you here.”
Katara stares for a moment, watching maple leaves, petals and snow dance around the other woman, before reaching out to grasp her hand. Yue graces her with another smile. “I’m happy you’re here, too, Yue.”
Interlocking their fingers, Yue leads them to a pristine lake, and takes a step onto the water. “Well, Painted Lady, let’s go. There’s so much I need to show you.”
In theory, Katara could easily find her way around the sprawling lands of the Spirit World thanks to the memories and knowledge the previous Painted Lady had passed on to her. She’s also pretty certain the Moon Spirit would have done the same for Yue, and that Yue would have been aware of this formality. However, a part of Katara gets it. She, too, wants to spend more time with an old friend.
So Katara squeezes her hand and follows her onto the lake. “Well, show the way, then.”
___
In the beginning, Katara often finds herself watching over those she left behind.
She sees Aang flourish with the other Air Nomads by his side, she sees Toph roughing her students around, she sees Sokka graduate and improve the design of the airships, she sees Zuko playing hide-and-seek with his daughter, she sees Suki fight for the rights of non-benders, she sees Gran Gran tend to the refugees from the North, she sees her dad find love again in his later years.
She watches them reunite on Ember Island every summer to frolic in the waves, and she watches her students preserve the tradition of Southern bending. She watches them remember her. She watches them mourn and she watches them rejoice, but most importantly she watches them move on. She watches them find happiness.
Maybe in another life she could have been there with them, but this is the path she has chosen. Thus, Katara throws herself into her newfound duties as the Painted Lady. It’s an easy transition with the memories of her former incarnation and her waterbending still intact. She splits her time between watching over her protected waters and exploring the Spirit World with Yue.
She soothes the aches of those who enter her rivers, and guides the occasional person who has become trapped by the undertow safely to the shore. She helps those she is able to, but with her limited powers and range of jurisdiction, she soon finds herself becoming frustrated. She can watch humanity suffer from beyond in the Spirit World, but she is incapable of helping those who need it the most. She knows the two realms are separate for a reason, but surely there is more she could be doing. There has to be.
___
Yue is the one to inspire a solution.
Over a meal of stewed sea prunes in her private garden, Yue hums along as Katara vents her disappointment towards not being able to help more people. “I just wish I could do more,” Katara huffs, “But I don’t have enough spiritual power to enter the human realm more often, and I can only work within the waters of the Outer Islands.”
“I wish I could offer you some of my own power, but the major Spirits are not allowed to split their powers amongst lower ranking Spirits nor directly interfere with the matters of humanity. It is only through the Avatar that we are able to have a more immediate influence on the human world,” Yue explains with a sigh, resting her hand on Katara’s knee.
Katara furrows her brow. “I know Tui and La lived in the human world, but why was Tui able to bless you as an infant? Is that not directly interfering with humanity?”
“Tui was allowed to act then because they had seen a possible future where they would be slain. Balance cannot exist without the Moon, so they were allowed to bless me as a failsafe. As the Moon Spirit, I have a fair amount of power, but it’s really the Nature Spirits like you that can move more freely between the realms,” Yue offered, before handing Katara a cup of tea.
“Thanks,” she smiled, taking a sip as she pondered over Yue’s words. As the Painted Lady and as a mortal, Katara has had her fair share of encounters with Nature Spirits. Most of them held a strong disdain for humanity, and tended to lash out when harm had come to their assigned domains. The majority of them had no interest in helping humans; only in protecting their waters or land. It was a strongly held belief in the Spirit World that humans were not trustworthy, but… but Spirits were.
Katara sets down her tea, and latches onto Yue’s arm. “What?” she questions with a tilt of her head.
“The Nature Spirits! They don’t trust humanity, but who do they trust?”
“Fellow Spirits..?”
“Yes, Spirits!” Katara is practically thrumming with excitement. “They won’t freely offer assistance to humans, but they will work together with another Spirit if it is in their best interest. They would be willing to cooperate with me!”
Yue’s eyes widen. “Nature Spirits have no restrictions on who they can share their spiritual energy with.”
“And because most of them were never human, they don’t understand how to best convey their gripes to the human world!”
“They really do not,” Yue giggles, and reaches out to grab Katara’s hands.
“But I do!” Katara adds, squeezing Yue’s hands in between hers.
“You do,” Yue smiles, “Sounds like you are going to be pretty busy, Painted Lady.”
She knows it is the Avatar’s duty to maintain balance between the Spirit World and the human one, but surely there is nothing wrong with some assistance. Katara is well aware how plagued by troubles the Four Nations are after the conclusion of the Hundred Year War. Aang cannot be everywhere, and he certainly does not have all the answers. No matter how powerful, the balance of the world is not something that solely rests on the shoulders of the Avatar. Everyone shares a bit of the burden, and the Painted Lady is fully capable of lightening the load.
“I’m ready,” Katara declares.
___
Katara throws herself into her newfound duties. She follows rumors of disgruntled Spirits to the farthest corners of the Spirit World, and finds herself encountering beings that not even the previous Painted Lady had the pleasure of meeting. Although initially reluctant to share their spiritual energy, her fellow Nature Spirits are soon seeking her out to deal with disrespectful humans.
She purifies rivers, clears blockages, and destroys the occasional factory. If she has enough energy to spare, then she will use it to heal the sick she comes across. She probably ventures into the human world more than any other Spirit, but she has no qualms about hard work, and the happiness of the Spirits and the humans she helps is an award in it’s own. Despite the memories of her previous life temporarily fading in the human world, she doesn’t mind. She doesn’t cross the boundary of the human and Spirit worlds to wallow in the memories of the life she left prematurely; it is not about that. She is there to help.
Between wandering the Spirit World and crossing over to the human one, she finds herself by Yue’s side. Maybe it’s because they both know what it is like to have been human, maybe it’s because they both remember life in the Water Tribes, maybe it’s because they didn’t get long enough the first time they met, but Katara finds herself returning to Yue’s lunar garden again and again.
They admire the permanently blooming trees while drinking tea, they share the offerings left at their respective shrines, they play an overly complex game of tag atop the lake, they visit the South during the Winter Solstice to watch the storybending performances, and they visit the North to view the annual memorial in honor of Yue.
Katara knows that no matter how many times they part that they will undoubtedly meet again, but over time she finds herself lingering more and more when it comes time to say goodbye. She is pleased to find that Yue appears to feel the same way, that despite having eternity, she also doesn’t want the moment to end.
They have a routine. No matter what, before returning to their respective duties, Yue will always be the one to place the conical hat on Katara’s head and lower the veil. Things change the day that Yue lowers the veil while still standing under the brim of the hat.
Katara’s face turns a bright red when she realizes how close the other woman is, but she doesn’t look away. She doesn’t think she could look away even if she tried, not when Yue’s eyes are boring into hers like that.
“Yue?”
“Yes?”
“May I kiss you?”
The brightness of her smile could put the Sun to shame, “Yes, please.”
So Katara does.
This change is quickly added to the routine.
___
There are some things that not even the Moon, Sun, Ocean, Earth, and Wind Spirits can interfere with: life, death and rebirth. However, this does not stop them from viewing it.
On the edge of the sky, where the planet below can be seen, souls are gathered to be sent to their next life. Some will be human, some will be animals, and others will be a blade of grass or a fly. Some of these lives are a punishment, some of them are a reward, and others are simply a part of the journey. However, no matter the designation, the process of rebirth is the most beautiful sight any Spirit or mortal can witness. If Katara had to describe it, the closest thing would be the fireworks of the Fire Nation, but with the grace of the aurora.
The first rebirth Katara watches is the one of the girl that was murdered by the same assassin shortly after her death. The girl leaves for her next life in the Earth Kingdom as a burst of yellow.
Shortly after that Gran Gran also departs for the next life with aquamarine sparkles, and years later her dad follows with a majestic purple. Gran Gran finds a new home among the burgeoning Air Nomads, and her father becomes the daughter of fishermen in the Fire Nation.
She also witnesses the rebirth of her assassin and that of Ozai. The assassin becomes a mosquito, and Ozai returns to the earth as a sapling planted in the very land he had tried to destroy.
Aang is the first to go among her friends. He joyfully moves on with an explosion all the colors of the rainbow. It does not feel like a goodbye, however, when the Avatar Spirit becomes one with her niece.
As the decades fly by, the souls of Suki, Zuko and Toph all find their way to the Spirit World and promptly move on to their new beginnings. Katara is grateful that this time destiny has blessed them all with loving parents.
Yue joins her when the time finally comes for Sokka as well. Her brother somehow makes it to the age of one hundred, and passes away peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Back when she was only Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, she used to think that they would be together forever. That she would never know life without her brother. She was wrong, but…. But as she holds Yue’s hand tight, and watches her brother’s soul prepare to journey to his next life in one of the developing cities, she doesn’t think she was completely wrong.
They may never meet in this life nor the next nor the one after that, but someday somewhere she may find herself coming across one of the people her brother has become. One of the people any of her friends and family have become. Forever may not be possible, but Katara believes in destiny. And some people you are destined to meet more than once.
“I'm happy, Sokka,” she confesses as she watches his soul be reborn with the blues and greens of the Southern Lights, “In the next life I hope you are, too.”