Chapter Text
Happiness coursed through her body from head to toe. Izumi felt excited: last night Aunt Katara had arrived with Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph, and today she could play with her cousins, which was great, because although she had some friends among Mom and Dad's coworkers, it wasn't the same. Bumi always had the most creative ideas for their adventures, and Kya was sooo mature, almost like an adult! Although Tenzin, Lin, and Suyin—Lin's younger sister—were also there. She didn't feel very happy about the last three: Aunt Toph's daughters were rude and spoiled, while Tenzin was boring.
"I can tie my shoes by myself, I'm big," she complained to her dad, pushing her feet—clad in her favorite red shoes—away from his big hands to bend down and show him that she really could do it.
Of course, Iroh came over to stand beside her, telling Dad that Mom had taught him how to tie them.
"You have to put the cat-bunny in the cave," she informed Dad.
"Oh... without a doubt, that's a great technique," Dad replied in a surprised tone as Izumi formed the two loops and passed them through the cave, sticking out her tongue because it brought her luck. She confirmed her thought once again when she tightened the knot successfully.
Yes. The tongue trick never failed.
Proudly, she smiled at Dad, showing him the shoe. He let out a whistle, with Iroh saying he could do it too, but that was a lie—Izumi had had to tie his shoes yesterday, which was why Mom always got him boots.
"That's not true! I did it right yesterday."
"They came undone immediately."
"It was just a moment."
"You fell flat on your face."
"Enough. Iroh, you'll learn to tie your shoes eventually," Dad interrupted, with his younger brother pouting.
He's a baby, she thought irritably, rolling her eyes. She walked out into the hallway, greeted the guards, and told Dad she didn't need to hold his hand.
"Awww, but what if I get lost?" Dad asked, with Iroh taking his hand, reassuring him that he didn't need to worry because he would hold Dad's hand, and Dad smiled warmly at him, thanking him for his concern.
Ohhh!
"Well... if that's the case..." she replied thoughtfully, taking Dad's hand.
After all, if Dad got lost, Mom would be sad, and Izumi would have to be the alpha of the place, and she was only seven and a half years old. I mean, she's big, but not that big. Dad always tells her they have warrior blood and that she shouldn't doubt she can defend her home, but she didn't want to miss lunch—lunch was delicious! Actually, it was her favorite food, while Iroh liked breakfast, especially ostrich-horse eggs.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Iroh asked Dad if he could sit on his shoulders.
No way! Izumi was the oldest! *She* should sit on Dad's shoulders!
Without hesitation, she complained about the proposal, swinging her hand, swaying Dad's hand as he held them on each side while listening to Iroh complain about how Izumi was already taller than him and he was tired. Dad made a surprised sound, asking his brother how he could be tired if he hadn't done anything, to which Iroh explained that he had done his homework and also Izumi's homework—to her absolute horror, blushing when Dad looked at her with that disappointed expression.
She suddenly found the floor very interesting.
"Izumi, how many times do I have to tell you to do YOUR homework?" Dad asked.
"But it's soooo boring. Homework is horrible, big girls don't do homework."
Dad's expression turned surprised, informing her that he wasn't aware of that and that he found it curious because both Mom and he had many responsibilities—with her not hesitating to affirm that seven-year-old big girls no longer had homework.
A snort escaped Dad's lips as he replied, "Then what exactly did Iroh do on your grades, huh?"—and he grabbed Iroh under the armpits, lifting him sooo high until he placed him on his shoulders, announcing that whoever did their homework had the right to be the lookout.
Not fair! Izumi wanted to be the lookout! If she had known, she would have done her homework!
"Iroh, son, don't pull my hair so hard."
"It's so high up!"
"Then get down!" Izumi replied without hesitation, affirming that she wasn't scared.
Dad shook his head, stopping in the middle of the hallway to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Princess Izumi, did you do your homework?"
Izumi froze, lips pressed together, shoulders hunched, and brow furrowed.
Dad nodded thoughtfully, announcing that whoever didn't do their duties couldn't be a good leader.
She didn't pout—seven-year-old (almost eight) big girls didn't pout. Only six-year-old Iroh pouted, and he was also the one clinging to Dad's head. At least when they saw Bumi, Kya, and the others, Izumi had the freedom to run toward them first to hug her cousin.
Kya was great. She was a few months older and an alpha like her; plus, she had beautiful hair, soft curls, while Izumi's hair was as straight as Mom's (not that Mom's hair was ugly—she'd punch anyone who dared say that), but maybe a little movement in her hair wouldn't be bad.
Luckily, Dad quickly left with Aunt Katara and Aunt Toph, staying to the side under the shade of a tree while Uncle Aang was having a boring meeting with Mom in her office. Those things didn't interest her. Instead, she focused on the new trick Kya could do with waterbending—it was great! The alpha made a ball of water and could hold it between her hands until it exploded because Tenzin sneezed so hard it messed up everyone's hair.
"Bah, any waterbender can do that," Lin scoffed, with Iroh blinking beside her.
Looking at her curiously, Tenzin said the trick was great, to which Lin (as irritating as ever—how she hated her) informed them that she could metalbend.
Everyone gasped in amazement.
Alright, Izumi had to admit it—that was tough, but she wasn't stupid.
"Prove it," she demanded, crossing her arms.
Lin smiled extremely satisfied, announcing that she would, pulling out two small metal balls and showing them in her palm.
They were marbles. Metal marbles.
"Awesome!" Bumi exclaimed, reaching out to take them, with Lin quickly pulling them away with a disdainful look.
A frown instinctively formed between Izumi's brows. Everyone knew the omega boy was already almost eleven and hadn't shown any bending abilities. It wasn't a big deal—a few days ago, Izumi had burned a curtain when they were playing "capture the Avatar" with Iroh, and Mom had been amazed, although afterward she gave her a long talk about how she would start taking more lessons.
If that was her reward, she didn't know if she felt happy or more disappointed. The only reason she didn't complain was that Iroh had told her she was great, and he still hadn't shown any bending ability, so she had a duty as the older sister to set an example. Besides, Dad wasn't a bender either, and Bumi always told them he didn't care, because Izumi's dad was awesome and when he grew up he would work with him inventing flying cars.
Returning to show them the metal marbles, Lin slowly moved her fingertips, concentrating on the object until what everyone expected happened. The marbles began to float.
Everyone gasped again.
"Awesome!" Tenzin exclaimed.
Iroh asked when she learned, with Lin proudly responding that she had managed it months ago, even before she could earthbend.
Alright, yes, that was pretty impressive—no one masters metalbending before earthbending.
"Yeah, yeah, how cool," she replied with a wave of her hand, trying to feign indifference—except that Kya leaned in, humming in surprise.
Kya!
"I can firebend too," she informed, drawing everyone's attention.
Lin crossed her arms in front of her, raising her eyebrows to ask her in that same tone she'd used before to prove it. Fine, Izumi could do it; she just wasn't feeling very confident about it, because she'd only done it in classes with Mom and Grandpa Iroh.
"Mom told me I couldn't do it or I might burn down the palace," she informed smugly, looking at her toes.
"Can you burn down the palace with your firebending?!" Bumi exclaimed.
Gasping excitedly on her behalf, Kya hugged her, congratulating her on being a firebender, with Lin rolling her eyes and Iroh running to get one of the boomerangs Dad had made for them to play with. Watching her younger brother return with the boomerang he showed to Suyin, she saw the beta girl look him up and down and declare that it was a farmer's weapon.
"Excuse me?" she asked, with Iroh blinking.
Extending the boomerang back toward the beta, her younger brother informed her that it wasn't a farmer's weapon, because farmers had many tools for working the land and a boomerang wasn't useful for working the land, and that it could be very dangerous—at which point Lin rolled her eyes, repeating that it was just a boomerang, grabbing it and throwing it with such force that they watched it disappear to the side of a pillar.
"My boomerang!" Iroh exclaimed sadly.
Alright, that was enough.
"Hey! That was rude! That boomerang belonged to Iroh!" she pointed at Lin, who crossed her arms again with Suyin quickly imitating her.
"It's a toy, although I suppose for someone who has nothing special about them, it could be a weapon," she concluded.
Bumi told her that was a very rude comment, but Izumi didn't care about that. Lifting her chin, she stepped forward and demanded that she apologize to Iroh.
"No," Lin replied. "I don't have to apologize to someone mediocre."
Everyone around them gasped again in a completely different sense.
"Mom says those who have no talent are a bunch of mediocres," Lin informed, looking at them all.
"Well, your mom says a lot, considering you don't have a dad."
Everyone gasped again, with Suyin inhaling deeply while her older sister turned as red as the tomato Izumi had eaten for breakfast. She wasn't stupid—she knew she'd spoken a truth everyone knew but no one talked about because everyone knew something was missing from both Earth Kingdom girls' story.
It was logical.
Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin have Uncle Aang and Aunt Katara.
Izumi and Iroh have Dad and Mom.
Who do Lin and Suyin have? Well, Aunt Toph. It's obvious they don't have a dad.
"There's no need to fight—Dad says that fighting—" Tenzin began in a ridiculously serious tone, only for Kya to shove him to announce that less talk and more action.
Lin's eyes narrowed threateningly, and Izumi wasn't willing to back down. She got into that stance (was it... kata number 3?). Fine, she didn't remember, but it didn't matter! Suyin was starting to cry about how her feelings were hurt, while Iroh (who was looking thoughtfully at the sky) turned to the beta to tell her that his grandpa always said he shouldn't worry, because what was lost always found its way back.
Of course, everything went downhill when the younger girl slapped Iroh's hand when he tried to touch her, pushing her younger brother to the ground while screaming that they didn't need a dad.
Alright.
"Hey! No one touches my brother!" she exclaimed, launching herself at the beta, but Lin intercepted her, spinning her and sending her to the ground.
It was purely instinct that made her spin again and get back on her feet to launch herself at her, creating chaos of screams and shrieks. Lin tried to move the ground beneath her feet; it turned out she moved a pillar that almost crushed Tenzin with Kya, who complained when she ended up covered in dirt and threw a stream of water at her that hit Suyin and Iroh, while Izumi tried to throw a fire blast but couldn't because she was simultaneously trying to put Lin in a headlock.
She couldn't understand how Mom could do both things at once in her training—it was really complicated!
"Hey-hey-don't fight! Let's all be friends!" Bumi exclaimed, with everyone yelling at him to shut up.
Until a "HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" froze them all when they saw their dad running toward them.
Quickly Izumi released Lin, who fell to the ground with Suyin obviously crying toward her while Kya made a disappointed sound and Tenzin sighed a huge breath of relief, murmuring that he really didn't handle anxiety well. Anyway, that didn't matter to her, especially when Dad stood with his hands on his hips looking at everyone and then at the fallen pillar, followed by Iroh soaked, Suyin crying, and Lin getting to her feet.
"Well?" he demanded in that tone that makes everyone shrink.
Oh, by Agni, they were in trouble. However, she had to give credit to the rest—no one seemed willing to open their mouths, but Dad was smart; he knew who the weakest link was, so he looked at Tenzin, who fidgeted nervously with everyone's eyes on him until he finally exploded with: "Suyin made fun of Iroh and his boomerang, throwing it into the air, then Lin also did it, Izumi asked her to apologize, they said they were mediocres, and Izumi and Lin started fighting, and I need to go to the bathroom!" and then exhaled.
Everyone stood in shock watching him, and it was obvious how a thought struck them all in unison: "tattletale" was written on all their faces, and Tenzin knew it. He looked at each of them and lowered his gaze, asking if he could go to the bathroom now.
She could see her father preparing for a lecture about how badly they'd acted; he had that frown of anger and disappointment. He opened his mouth, but three seconds later, the boomerang thrown by Lin came back and hit the back of his head dead-on, and everyone watched in horror as THEIR DAD fell the next second to the ground with a dull thud.
Oh, by Tui and La.
Everyone instinctively gathered around in absolute shock.
Ironically, Iroh looked at Suyin to tell her, satisfied, that Grandpa was right and things come back, and maybe their dad would return someday, but Izumi had another idea.
"They killed my dad!" she exclaimed in panic, gesturing toward the figure on the ground.
Completely terrified, Lin stepped back, grabbing her sister's arm to say it was an accident, that it wasn't her intention, starting to ask how she could possibly plan something like that—with Iroh crouching down to pick up the boomerang and start poking Dad's face with it, reminding the sisters that he'd told them boomerangs weren't agricultural tools, and Izumi had to tell him to stop poking Dad's face. At least Kya did something useful, announcing she would go get Aunt Katara, while Tenzin made weird faces around because he needed to go to the bathroom. No one paid him attention, focusing on how Bumi hummed disappointedly admitting he wanted to work with him when he grew up but now that Lin killed him, it wouldn't be possible.
"I didn't kill him!"
"You killed him because you didn't want me to have a dad! Look what you've done! My brother is devastated!" she pointed toward where Iroh continued poking Dad's face carelessly with Bumi humming beside him.
At least things improved a bit when Aunt Katara came running with Aunt Toph. Immediately, the satisfaction that Lin and Suyin would be in trouble hit her full force, opening her mouth quickly when Aunt Katara asked what happened, but something caught her attention from the corner of her eye.
Lin... didn't look... good...
She was pale, looking at the ground, gripping her younger sister's hand tightly.
She just looked... scared...
"Well? What happened?" Aunt Toph asked with her hands on her hips and that hard tone, typical of her, while Aunt Katara used magical water on Dad's head.
Before Izumi could open her mouth, Iroh stepped forward, saying: "The boomerang hit Dad's head," showing the boomerang to both aunts.
Letting out a dramatic sigh, Aunt Katara commented how her father, even at thirty, couldn't stop getting into trouble. Aunt Toph even seemed a little amused, saying that's why she called him "Sleepyhead." Between them, they looked at everyone to inform them they would go inside, that Iroh should go tell Zuko that Dad had had an accident, and that the rest should go get ready for lunch.
Lifting Dad slightly, Aunt Katara asked Aunt Toph with a strained tone to help her, who grabbed his other arm, and between them they carried him off, not before telling everyone to go to their rooms to clean up.
"Hey..." Suyin began, getting everyone's attention—although she looked at Iroh—but that caring tone she had before vanished with a "never mind," to which Lin clicked her tongue, taking her sister's hand to drag her inside the palace.
The five stayed together for a moment, with Bumi asking if Dad would be okay, to which Izumi shrugged.
"Don't worry, Mom is the best healer in the world," Kya reassured with a smile.
Izumi smiled back until Iroh blinked at Tenzin, asking if he felt better now.
Everyone then turned to the youngest of the trio, who blushed at Izumi's confusion—but not Kya's, who looked completely embarrassed as she began scolding him for having peed in the courtyard, while the little boy complained that it was either that or his pants; besides, it wasn't the first time he'd peed outside, since on trips with Uncle Aang he always did it.
Taking everyone to their rooms, she asks Bumi what kind of trips they all take with Uncle Aang, with the omega shrugging with a smile that looks more like a grimace, informing that he doesn't know because the trips are ones Uncle Aang only takes with Tenzin, since he's an airbender.
"Oh..."
"But Kya is a waterbender—doesn't she go on trips like that with Aunt Katara?" she asked. Now Bumi looked at the floor with a sad expression.
"Na... Mom gives her private lessons," and that closed the conversation.
---
There's something horrible about waking up with the feeling that you've forgotten something important. Confusion has never liked him; he's a strategist, the one who makes plans in the group. He needs to know things, needs to think fast. But when he opens his eyes and sees a white ceiling with a stain very similar to Momo's face, he firmly believes that wherever he's gotten himself into this time, it can't be that bad because at least they take care of cleaning his house's ceiling.
"Sokka? Are you conscious?" asks Katara's voice, although it's not the same voice as his sister—it sounds a little deeper and softer.
Weird.
Still, he knows it's Katara's voice. How does he know? Sokka isn't sure, but he hums that he's okay by instinct, trying to calm himself. His voice sounds strange—maybe it's because of whatever he did. He's not sure, but he tries to project confidence, which fails spectacularly when he sees Katara—or whoever is pretending to be Katara.
"What the hell?" he breathes, eyes wide, looking at his sister.
Katara blinks confusedly, asking, "What?" to which Sokka asks if she's his sister, the omega's face turning into a confused and worried expression that Sokka doesn't care about. His sister is old! Well, not old, but she's clearly older. And what's wrong with her voice? Why does it sound so... manly?
As he explains his concerns and practically complains, looking worriedly around, asking where they are because it's obvious they're in some kind of infirmary, he looks at Katara again, who is pale beside him. Concern then hits him full force.
Oh...
"You... don't remember this place?" his sister asks slowly.
Sokka doesn't have to be a genius to know something is very wrong because the omega's expression only intensifies when he asks in response if he should.
"By Tui and La," Katara breathes.
"What's going on? Why are you so scared? And why does my voice sound weird and you look older?" he asks quickly, his head spinning.
Then Katara asks what the last thing he remembers is, and Sokka grimaces, touching his forehead to say he remembers how the mission to defeat the Fire Lord had failed and that Dad had been imprisoned because of him. He feels the trace of sadness, disappointment, and anger toward himself, but when he looks up, Katara looks sad, breathing an "Oh, Sokka," and grabbing a mirror from a small metal table to come to his bedside.
Gently, Katara sits beside him. She tells him he had an accident, that he got hit in the head with a boomerang, and Sokka snorts in disbelief.
That's ridiculous! He hasn't hit his head with his own boomerang since he was nine.
Anyway, Katara continues, telling him he seems to have forgotten a portion of his memories, and concern hits him hard because the obviousness is too much.
Katara looks older than he remembers, much older. How old is she now? Thirty? He doesn't know. He remembers her as the little fourteen, almost fifteen-year-old girl, which meant Sokka had lost more than ten years of memories.
That wasn't good.
Handing him the mirror, Katara gives it to him with extreme care, asking him not to get upset, and Sokka can only think in terror that maybe he has some kind of horrible scar like that fire lunatic who keeps chasing them.
"Oh," escapes his lips in surprise.
By all spirits! Sokka is...!
"Katara! I'm handsome!" he exclaims excitedly, starting to look at his face from all angles while his sister laughs—"Don't laugh! I'm serious! See this chin?" he points to his jaw.
He can't believe it! He knew he had potential to be handsome because Dad was very good-looking and everyone told him so, but one thing was dreaming about it and another was seeing it. There was no more scrawny Sokka! His face was a firm face, strong square jaw, he even had some stubble. His hair was obviously a bit longer and had many new things like braids that made him blink in astonishment with a sudden pressure of air.
He knew this kind of braid. Besides... he had two beads intertwined with the hair strands.
Beads! Impossible! Beads were only placed when you had children! Sokka couldn't have children! Or could he? Maybe he had children with Suki? Maybe he finally married Suki?
Oh, spirits.
"Katara... do I have children in the future?" he asked.
His sister's expression fell.
"Oh, Sokka," she smiled sadly. "This is the present," she corrected, and Sokka made a thoughtful sound to look at her expectantly. "You see..." she began at the same time the door opened and a woman with white hair and rectangular glasses entered.
Although that wasn't important, what was important was that she was wearing Fire Nation clothing and looked like someone from the Fire Nation.
Sokka doesn't need to be told twice—he stands up and drags Katara behind him, warning the woman to stay away in that manly voice he now has, while his sister starts scolding him, telling him not to cause trouble, that nothing's wrong. It doesn't matter, she doesn't know—she's always been more gullible.
The woman in front of him freezes, though not scared; on the contrary, her expression is deeply analytical as she asks if he doesn't remember her.
"Why would I remember you?" he replies brusquely. "Did you do something to me?"
"Bringing your younger son into the world, I would consider that important," she informed simply, making him freeze.
What?
She brought his younger son into the world?
Sokka is very confused. Time that Katara takes advantage of to free herself and ask the woman, Zuzune, to excuse them, that apparently Sokka is having memory problems, and she hums thoughtfully, replying that she noticed, and asks without further consideration that he sit back down on the cot.
Slowly—and not because she asked him to, but because Katara also expects him to comply—Sokka sits back down in place, frowning and crossing his arms, which allows him for the first time to evaluate his body and wow! What a body! Not only is his face attractive, but his body is full of muscles, although he has small scars on his arms—details that make him look more rugged. Then he notices the clothes.
Of course, how didn't he notice? This isn't his clothing. They're not the furs of his tribe; on the contrary, the material is delicate, soft, clearly fine and light, but he doesn't feel cold, so he deduces it must be appropriate for the climate wherever he is. The style, on the other hand, feels a bit confusing—he has several layers of fabric that intertwine, and as he pats his pockets, he finds something quite curious.
It looks like a keychain, but it has an animal he's never seen—which he deduces must be a turtle-duck—hanging from a red cord and a smaller locket than the palm of his hand, which he tries to open and fails miserably. It looks expensive; it must be silver from the color and shine, biting it and quickly pulling it from his mouth when Katara seems to finish her conversation with the Fire Nation woman.
"I understand," the firebending master says after Katara has explained everything since he woke up.
She asks what her healing water could do, and Katara replies that although she identified damage to his head from swelling (Sokka feels it and indeed has a bump that makes him grimace), it's very likely that as it goes down, his memories will gradually return. The bespectacled elder nods, looks at him for a moment, and hums that there would be no problem with bringing him up to speed, since it's not something he can escape from anyway.
"The Fire Lord was on his way," she informs.
That single sentence is enough to lower his blood pressure.
Letting out a "What?" he quickly stands up on alert, ordering Katara to come to his side because they needed to leave. His sister looks at him with a pained expression, telling him not to panic, that they're safe, with Sokka exclaiming if she didn't hear what the firebending master said about the Fire Lord coming.
Repeating that everything is fine, that they don't need to leave, they fall into an argument back and forth until Katara informs him that they're not going anywhere because first, Sokka lives here, and second, his children are here playing with her and Toph's children somewhere.
That leaves him, of course, completely stunned because first: what do you mean he lives here? Second: where exactly is "here"? And third: what do you mean Katara and Toph have children?
Everything was simply too much, and before Sokka could start asking all his questions, the doors opened with another person entering the room. His first thought had been a network of connected details—the crown, the clothing, the stature. His mind added up and crossed the line to "Fire Lord," with Sokka letting out a "You!" and launching himself fully at the figure while Katara and the healer screamed.
They both end up on the floor, and that's when he notices something.
The Fire Lord has a very large scar on his face. A scar identical to a crazy prince who's been chasing them halfway around the world, but it's impossible. Or is it? Has the world gone so crazy that Zuko has become the Fire Lord? But... is this Zuko? That madman? He thinks fast while he's on top of said person, holding him by the collar of his tunic, and who he deduces is Zuko does nothing. He doesn't hit him, doesn't defend himself—he just lies there, on the floor with Sokka on top of him.
The firebender just looks at him in shock.
Sokka's agile mind searches for answers from what he has: Zuko has the crown, so he deduces that the time he lost transformed him into the Fire Lord, but he doesn't know why they're wherever they are with him here too. So he furiously asks what they're doing here.
"You hit your head..." Zuko murmurs, watching his face intently.
He looks pale.
"Sokka! By all spirits! Let him go!" Katara orders furiously, pushing him off the firebending master.
He can do nothing but watch dumbfounded as he sees his sister help his sworn enemy to his feet and ask if he's okay.
"Is he okay? Is this a joke?! Since when do we care about guys who try to roast us alive?!"
Zuko opens his mouth, but Katara steps forward furiously, telling Sokka to shut up.
He's about to complain about that again when a timid knock comes at the door, followed by a child's voice. It's strange, but he knows in an unconscious and inexplicable way that it's a child's voice, and he instinctively steps in that direction with something stirring in the center of his chest—that instinct that often moves him—but he stops abruptly when Zuko the bastard steps forward, opening the door slightly, covering the space with his body, barely peeking out to murmur some things and then tell Katara he'll be back, leaving a look that for a second became anguished and then vanished as if it had been his imagination.
Maybe it was his imagination. Why would the guy look anguished?
"Is that really Zuko the idiot?" he asks, pointing at the door. "Why is he here? Why are you defending him? Why are we with him here?" he asks, then recalling with horror something Katara had told him—"We live with Zuko?!" he exclaims.
Katara quickly told him to lower his voice and not refer to Zuko as an "idiot." Sokka rolled his eyes, arguing that he was.
The whole situation was simply unreal.
Listening to his sister murmur that, thank the spirits, this Zuzune—who announced she would talk to the "GUARDS" as if that weren't alarming in itself—had said everything was temporary and he would soon regain his memory.
That didn't explain anything in Sokka's opinion.
"How many years?" he demanded, pulling Katara from her thoughts.
"What?"
"How many years did I lose? You said I hit my head and magically I have a beard and you look like Mom more than ever, so... how many... years... did I lose?" he asked with a lump in his throat.
The answer that it was several seemed obvious; however, when Katara replied that it was more than ten years, Sokka had to close his eyes and take a nearby chair to sit down because he felt the world tilting. By the spirits! More than ten years?!
"How—" he asked, cutting himself off.
Katara looked at him sadly.
"Iroh said you hit your head with a boomerang," she explains, and the name Iroh resonates warmly in his chest, so he asks who this Iroh is, and Katara's expression intensifies—"Iroh is your younger son," she informed with a small smile.
Sokka can't help but inhale deeply.
By Tui and La.
"Younger?" he asks.
Katara nods.
"Izumi is the oldest."
Sokka feels like he can barely breathe.
Damn. Damn. He has two children—or so he thinks. He asks Katara if that's all of them, and she says yes, so he nods, resting his elbows on his knees and his forehead on his clasped hands. He has two children and doesn't remember either. What the hell? How? Why? Right, right—because of the stupid boomerang, but what kind of father does that? He can't just forget his children.
His children with strange names.
"I didn't give them those names, it must have been Suki," he replied, shaking his head.
Experience—even without ten years—is enough to see his sister's expression turn into a grimace that bodes nothing good.
Oh no.
"Don't panic," Katara warns, and Sokka mutters that he didn't marry Suki, right? "Actually, she's married to Ty Lee," she informs, and Sokka has no idea who this Ty Lee is, but right now he hates her a lot. "She's a girl," Katara corrects.
Damn.
This is how the craziest story of his life begins, with his sister telling him they won the war, that Sokka ended things with Suki a year and a half later because they both agreed (Sokka can't believe it), that he had many girlfriends after that (he can believe that—I mean, he's handsome, he saw his face), that he went on missions with his father for a while (who was freed and is fine) to train and be the future chief of the tribe, but then decided he didn't want to settle down, so he resigned and became an ambassador for the Water Tribes to the Fire Nation.
"So what? That im—" he corrects himself seeing Katara's face—"lunatic Zuko took the place of his lunatic father?" he asked.
Katara nods, saying that's right, that they all work together with Aang to maintain world peace and that Zuko has become a good Fire Lord and blah blah blah—his sister just keeps letting out praise after praise until she realizes Sokka has stopped paying attention and hits him on the head, apologizing immediately over and over.
It's good to see some things haven't changed.
"Alright, fine... I'll accept your fanciful story that Zuko is good now. That doesn't explain what we're doing here," he punctuated, and his sister grimaced.
"Well..." she began tentatively. "Aang, Toph, and the kids came for a meeting with Zuko and so they could meet."
"So... it's a meeting center?" he asks.
She shakes her head, informing him it's the Fire Nation Palace.
Oh well, at least he hopes the idiot Zuko is a good host, he thinks sarcastically, remembering Katara's phrase again.
"Wait..." he asks, looking at her. "Did you say 'you all'?"
Katara grimaced, nodding, and the confusion only grows.
"You said I live here," he adds, and Katara laughs nervously.
That's a bad omen.
Worried, he demands his sister tell him what all this means and why Sokka should live here, watching her nervously fidget with her fingers.
"Oh, you see," she laughs. "What happens... is..." she draws out, looking to the side—"You married Zuko and now you have children and a happy family. Isn't that lovely?"
Sokka thinks he went to bed and woke up in a very twisted reality.