Chapter Text
Book 1: Air
Chapter 1: The Beginning
When the new cycle of the avatar begins, Nathaniel is born into the Wesninski family. His mother belongs to an ancient fire nation family, and his father is a powerful and ruthless firebender that has built his reputation working for the Moriyamas, helping taking care of unwanted resistance against their plans.
The Moriyama family is an old and very wealthy family that has gained their power through war many generations ago. They control most of the transactions with the other nations and any business in the city outside the law is also connected to them. Ichirou, head of the Moriyama family, is always looking for ways to expand their territory to have more power, so Nathaniel grows up hearing whispers of conversations in his house of their plans to make it happen. The problem is that the current council and the Firelord were wary of the idea of expanding their territories into the other nations. They didn’t wish to start a war when the fire nation is prospering like never before.
However, it doesn't take Ichirou long to realize that that isn’t reason enough to stop his plan. Nathaniel is shocked when he listens through the wall about what plan they want to put into motion: if the council and the Firelord don’t want to take part in this change in history then they would have to be taken down.
To make something like this work required careful planning and discretion so Nathaniel keeps seeing more people come and go to their house. He can feel everyone on edge, too afraid of the repercussions if their plan fails. And if the plan was to succeed, they couldn't be linked to it.That could cause the fire nation to be divided between not wanting to go to war for those who had just killed their Firelord and the ones who supported the idea. And a civil war was not the purpose of it. Ichirou needed the full support of the fire nation to bring his plan to life. And he needed someone they could manipulate as Firelord so that they could then use the full army to conquer the other nations.
Time continues to pass and even though there’s no big developments on how to achieve this plan, regular meetings keep happening. One winter night a reunion is held at the Wesninskis’ house that has the presence of most of the advisors of Ichirou, and that caughts Nathaniel’s attention. So once the reunion starts he goes to the stairs to listen in. The advisors don’t waste time and are quick to explain their newest idea to form the Ravens, an elite team of skilled firebenders trained to serve them as private, disposable soldiers that could execute the plan when the time came. Tetsuji, Ichirou’s uncle, will run the academy. Training young firebenders owned by them under the disguise of being a private restricted school.
Before the reunion is over his father walks out of the room and Nathaniel is caught listening in. He has never seen him more furious. Nathan has a murderous expression on his face as he drags Nathaniel down the stairs spitting insults and threats for him to never embarrass him ever again. Nathan throws him against the wall and attacks him. It all happens so fast that Nathaniel only has the time to put his arm up to shield his face when the fire hits him.
***
Months pass, and Nathaniel knows that the Moriyama family is growing impatient because of the lack of results. And he knows that that didn’t bode well for either him or his mother: his father frustrations were often released on them. At least it meant that they hadn’t come up with a way to dethrone the current Firelord without causing complete chaos over their nation.
However, everything changes when Nathaniel arrives home from school one day and the fire sages are waiting for him. They declare him to be the next avatar and shock runs through him. Nathaniel doesn’t know how to process what he has just heard so he looks around the living room. He can see that his mother is trying to disguise it but he knows what that look means: she’s terrified of what this could mean. His father, though—his father is smiling coldly at him, showing all his teeth, and that’s what really scares Nathaniel too.
When the Fire sages leave, Nathan takes him into the Moriyamas’ academy and goes to talk to Tetsuji while Nathaniel waits outside the door. Nathaniel looks around and notices a boy with dark hair train firebending on the field to his side. The boy must be his around his age and seems to be practicing advanced movements. Nathaniel moves to the side to be able to watch him more closely and as he moves he begins to hear his father’s voice in the background. He scans the building and notices a window on the far corner and continues to walk towards it. He doesn’t take more than two steps when his father’s voice begins to rise and Nathaniel starts to understand what he’s hearing and realizes that it’s not anger that’s making his father raise his voice, quite the contrary.
“If it’s the avatar conquering in his name, what do you think the firelord will do? Refuse the new territories?” Nathan throws in the air. And Nathaniel feels like an ice bucket of water has been thrown at him. They want him to start a war?
“No, he will not,” Tetsuji agrees. Nathaniel cannot believe what he’s hearing. He looks around feeling panic rise in him and that’s when he notices another boy getting closer to him with a cold expression on his face.
“A new era will soon start, Admiral.” Tetsuji continues. Nathaniel steps away from the window in direction to the boy. “Ichirou will be very pleased to hear this. You must go now. I will call and emergency meeting to tell him about it.”
The boy steps closer, and looks down at him.“ Are you coming to study here too? I’m the best student they have here.”
Nathaniel looks up and instantly dislikes the look of arrogance the boy has. “I’m not sure,” he answers.
“I’m Riko, and you are?”
A door opens and they both look to the side. His father exists and keeps walking. “Lets go, Nathaniel.” Nathaniel is quick to jog to catch him. And when he’s about the exit the property gates he glances at the building once again and sees Riko still watching him. And Nathaniel hopes he never sees him again.
On the same day that Nathaniel finds out that he’s the new avatar, Mary takes him away and they vanish.
***
Nathan is quick to send his most trusted soldiers to find them and bring them back. Through the years Mary and Nathaniel have had a few close calls but always manage to escape them. But Lola and her team are persistent and eventually one morning comes when they’re finally caught.
That morning, Nathaniel is walking back from the lake when he hears an explosion. His mother had still been asleep when he left not too long ago. Fear and panic settle in and he starts to run toward the house they have been staying in.
He starts to see the flames and the smoke rising to the sky. As he gets closer, he sees Lola’s team circling the house, and freezes. From where he is he can see Lola’s cold grin. “He must be close, search the woods,” she shouts to the others.
Nathaniel starts to feel his control slip away as rage overpowers him. They’ve found them, and he quickly realizes that her gloating means only one thing: his mother is inside the burning house.
In a moment his control is gone. Nathaniel feels power run through him like never before. All of a sudden he’s getting higher into the air, moving fast towards Lola and the others. The earth shatters to his will and boulders begin to rise, then he throws them to where they are staying. Lola and the others start to run to find cover and try to block his attacks and that's when they see him flying towards them. Nathaniel can see the hesitation in their eyes when they realize what is happening, but they don’t run. They start to fight, shooting blasts of fire at him but Nathaniel can easily predict their movements and easily block their attacks as well, using all the elements. And one by one Nathaniel knocks them out unconscious. Lola is the last one still standing but even she can't fight him like this and soon he sends her towards the wall of the burning house, knocking her out too.
Nathaniel regains control over his body and drops to his knees, feeling weak. He looks at all the destruction around him in shock. Uprooted trees are thrown around and the house is still burning, creating a big dark cloud above his head. The smoke in the air is making it difficult to breathe, and three unconscious bodies are scattered around the area.
And his mother is gone.
Nathaniel tries to calm down. He clenches his fists and bites his lip until he can taste the blood. For a moment he just stares at Lola’s unconscious body in front of him, wishing that he had killed her. Wishing he was strong enough to get up now and do it. He knows he’s just entered the avatar state, but it wasn’t on purpose, and he had no control of what he was doing at that moment.
He hates that he was the new avatar now more than ever before. He didn’t ask for it. He can’t even control it. That power inside of him just got his mother killed. And now he is all alone.
Nathaniel begins to cough and slowly gets up. He spares a moment to look at the unforgiving fire burning down the house and turns around. His mother is gone. There's nothing he can do for her now. He runs back towards the lake. Tears start rolling down his face but he pays them no attention. He needs to get as far away from this place as he can. Lola and her team will wake up soon enough and he needs to put as much distance between them before that.
Nathaniel begins to run, on his mind the constant reminder of what his mother kept telling him when they managed to dodge his father’s men: never stop running.
So he runs, and runs, until he finally approaches the nearest village. There he looks for an ostrich horse to steal. Once he finds one tied near a fence with no one around, he jumps on his back and pushes it to run as fast as it can through the night. Tears keep falling down but he keeps going. Because stopping means he is going to get captured and delivered to his father. It means he is going to be punished for running away, and be sent to train as a Raven. It means he would be forced to start a war. And he would rather die too than let that happen.