The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth

Even after years of peace, the sight of the Fire Nation emblem sends an instinctive stab of fear through Katara's heart.

Childishly, she'd thought that balance would be immediate once the Avatar defeated Fire Lord Ozai, but after years of navigating the tribunal and rebuilding politics, she finds herself almost missing the simplicity of war.

A hundred-year war has left the world so out of balance that it's hard to imagine it can ever be restored. Even Aang's endless reserves of optimism and creativity grow strained as he travels constantly, negotiating terms between the nations and using every moment of spare time to found a new nation of Air Nomads.

The Southern Water Tribe begins rebuilding. Slowly. It's been so many years since it's had any goal but survival that initially no one even knows what rebuilding should mean. Without any waterbenders but Katara, it's impossible to return to many of the traditional ways of building and hunting. The waterbenders who journeyed from the Northern Tribe don't share or appreciate many Southern Traditions. As the smaller Tribe, Southern ways are treated as lesser. The tension is constant, and the accusation hangs heavy that they are clinging to the past and should allow more "advanced" nations to lead them in rebuilding. A new world. A new era. Many in the tribe are ready to embrace it.

Katara is the only Southern waterbender left, and the endangerment of those traditions feels like a piece of Southern Watertribe identity that no one else can even see. She and Sokka have an explosive argument during a Water Tribe council meeting about the balance between tradition and modernization. Imported boats. Imported architecture. Imported teachers. Visions of mining and factories. What will even be left of the Southern Water Tribe, she wants to know.

Afterward, her father requests that she take on the role of Water Tribe envoy.

The title is a compliment, but the purpose is exile. She's being sent away to stop her interference with the rebuilding decisions.

"I have a responsibility to everyone in this tribe, Katara," Hakoda says when she argues. "I cannot give priority to the waterbending tradition. Not even for my daughter. There will be time to restore the Southern bending traditions in the future when there are new benders again."

There will be no place left for them by then is all Katara can think as she packs to leave.

The first place she's sent is the Fire Nation. The thought of seeing Zuko again makes her heart pound with nervous excitement, but the purpose of the trip is unpleasant.

Fire Nation has agreed to pay reparations to the Southern Water Tribe. It's been years since she last saw Zuko, and the first time she lays eyes on him again it's as an envoy, not a friend, addressing him as Fire Lord, asking that he explain why his nation's payments to her tribe have been late in recent months.

Zuko is older and burning in his throne room, flanked by walls of flames.

The scar on his face is still as stark and brutal as it was the first time she saw him all those years before. Fire glitters in his golden eyes, in the gold detailing of his intricate robes, and reflects wildly in the Fire Crown he wears in his top knot, the Fire Nation emblem.

Her heart clenches in her chest as she stares up at him.

The familiarity that had once existed between them seems extinguished.

The room is stifling as she stands in her traditional Water Tribe robes. The layers of wool, fur, and leather trap the heat against her skin, and she feels at risk of evaporating as she bows respectfully and thanks him formally for his hospitality. A bead of perspiration forms along her temple and runs down to her chin as she states the purpose of her visit and leans forward in respectful obeisance.