Chapter Text
There once was a world where there were people who could control and bend the four elements, air, water, earth and fire, to their will.
Alongside others who did not possess this gift the so called 'benders' grew, they later learned to bend metal and lava.
The also discovered the ability to bend spirit energy, but only the Avatar master of all four elements and the bridge between our world and that of the spirits was the one to completely master it.
The Avatar was to bring balance to the world if need be.
This does not mean that balance was always present.
Wars and conflicts have scarred this world and will continue to do so, it is in humanity's nature.
But not al of humanity's instincts are wrong, there have been great heroes and rulers who helped save the world many times, the Avatar usually being one of them.
There was the Avatar who found Republic city, he had defeated the Fire lord Ozai who had gone mad with power ready to burn down all of the earth kingdom.
The Avatar had stopped him in his plans and an era of peace began.
But it was not to last long, conflict between benders and non-benders begane to occur and the new Avatar needed to rise up. She dealt with a great deal of conflicts in her time, bender vs non-bender, humanity vs spirits, unity vs freedom.
In the end she had triumphed above all and balance continued.
After some time the Avatar was born or should I say Avatars, a pair of brothers, twins to be exact.
They were born into the world and were expected to become above all spiritual leaders. It seemed all was well with the world until the spirits had enough, humans had started to live in their world and had polluted it with their machines.
Humanity had started to harvest the spirit vines to create an alternate energy source for their own military and domestic use.
After blood was shed on both sides the Avatars decided to close the portals and once again separate men and spirit.
Some commended them for it others told them they had destroyed balance but they stood by their decision.
And so the cycle will continue, wars will be fought, blood will be shed, peace will be but temporary and the Avatar will be born once again.
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"Wake up!" the curtains were drawn open and sunlight flooded the young Fire lords room. "Hmmmm..... Five minutes more." hummed Azim, brand new ruler of the fire nation, as his mother, lady Mira, pulled the bedsheets off of him.
"is this how the ruler of our people, our grand nation is going to act all the time? Like a whining child?" she asked her son who now bolted out of bed and started to walk to his mirror. "O Spirits, it really wasn't a dream was it." it was more a statement than a question. The young man looked over at a drawer next to his mirror seeing the traditional hairpiece worn by fire lords for generations sitting on a velvet cushion.
He took it in his hand," It's all real. " he sighed, a bit disappointed.
His mother noticed, she put a hand on his shoulder and put him in front of the mirror again, she took the hairpiece from his hand and started to do his hair up, just like when he was a child.
"I can assure you it's all very real, you should feel proud, I know I am." she smiled a bit, and then continued. "I almost forgot to tell you, your father arranged everything for your diplomatic trip to Republic city and Ba Sing Se, you should have seen him worrying about which guards he should send with you to make sure you are safe, it was really quite adorable." the only response she got from her son was a small hum.
Mira looked in the mirror only to see a sad look in her son's eyes, she finished his hair by putting the hairpiece in places and lowered herself in front of her son taking his hands in hers.
"What's wrong sweetie? Are you nervous? Or scared? There's no need for that, I know it's scary bu-" he cut her off.
"Do you think she would have made a better ruler than me ?"
Azim didn't look at his mother but at his own reflection, there was something bitter in the way he had said it.
Mira looked at her son, he had grown much but he still needed to grow some more, tears came to her eyes.
'if only she had gotten the chance to grow up'
Her son looked at her, tears now threatening to fall from his eyes too.
They looked at each other and laughed. How sad they were. They hugged each other and with a shaky voice Mira spoke the words that would keep her son going through hard times. "She would be proud to call you her brother."
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10 years earlier.
If you were every to visit Republic city you would probably have heard of a shop, located somewhere, stuck between the shopping district and industrial grounds close to the harbor.
You would have heard of the shop's owners, a grounded old man by the name of Zhang and his caring companion Xin. Now the rumors are that Zhang and Xin are benders although nobody has ever seen them bend, others say they made a deal with a spirit, to get it to work for them and only a few say they let other people make the goods for them.
Whatever the case, they sure we're a pair of brilliant craftsmen and it was certainly to no one's surprise when they took on an apprentice.
What was a surprise was that it wasn't a talent crafter who had already made a name for himself, instead it was a child, no more than 12 years old, a sad looking girl with dull black hair and pale skin, hands that didn't have the callus of a craftsman.
Nobody knew why Zhang and Xin decided to teach her but then again nobody had seen what Zhang and Xin had seen.
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It was early in the morning and Zhang was making the shop ready for the day when he heard knocking on the front door of his shop. He thought it was just a customer checking to see if they were already open, he went and opened the door to tell them to come back a bit later but was surprised to find a young girl on his doorstep. He was even more surprised when she asked if she could work here, he didn't know how to respond and instead let the girl inside.
She hesitated, the older man noticed, it looked as if she almost forced herself to go in.
Once in he took the lead and guided their way through the shop to his and Xin's residence above the shop.
When they arrived in the kitchen Zhang sat the girl down at their dinner table and told her he was going to get Xin and set a pot of tea, he noticed only now that the girl was clutching an improvised backpack to her chest, only now did it start to dawn on him how strange the situation really was.
A girl no older than 13 he assumed, stood at his front door at the crack of dawn without parents or any sort of supervision.
He was quick in getting Xin out of bed once he told her who it was that sat at their dinner table.
Xin told him to make the tea and that she would go and great the girl herself.
So he did.
When Xin entered the kitchen and saw the girl sitting at her table she immediately noticed how sad and tense the girl looked, her eyes had bags under them and were bloodshot, clearly she was sleep deprived. Yet she was on high alert, she seemed ready to bolt out of there this very second, she jumped when Xin sat down across from her looking as if she was in some kind of trouble.
Xin was unsure of what to ask but settled on asking where her parents were.
"I don't....have...don't have any." the girl responded.
She was lying, Xin saw it in the way she looked at anything in the room but her.
"Sooooo...you're an orphan?"
A long pause settled over them.
"Yes." a lie.
"And you want to work here? Why?"
The girl hesitated, "Because..I've got.. got nowhere else..to...else to go."
Xin knew that this was not going to work, she wouldn't get anything out of this kid by just asking random questions.
"Okay but you could have gone to any other business in the city, why come here?"
Xin noticed the look in the eyes of the girl change and when she spoke she sounded almost confident.
"Because people talk about you, they know who you are and they told me that you keep secrets, that's why."
Secrets, Xin thought. A smile creeped over her face, so she was trying to escape something or someone and she was smart enough to come here.
Xin started to like the girl.
"Okay, so let's pretend that I think about taking you in, what do you have to offer?"
The girl thought for a while, "Nothing of importance, nothing but a helping hand around the shop and in doing chores, all I ask is for a place to sleep and some food."
Xin snickers, "That's a lot to ask for, and you didn't even say please!" the girl shrank back, there were tears in her eyes and look that said 'I messed up'.
Instantly Xin regretted her remark.
She truly did feel bad for the girl, and if it weren't for Zhang she would say yes to her....... 'but screw Zhang.' she thought, he wasn't going to stop her once she decided.
"what's your name?"
The kid looked surprised. "Linh." she muttered.
"Wel then Linh, it seems that from this short conversation I've begun to like you, so what do you say?" she offered her hand to Linh. "Want to come and work for us?"
The girl didn't know how fast to take her hand.
"thank you."
"No problem Linh."
Zhang came in with the tea and smiled at Xin, she had done what he had hoped she'd do.