#source: aymmidumps

[iheartmesomebooks]

Neil: what a mess

Dan: *looks at clutter covering floor* it’s just a bunch of paper

Neil: I meant my life

[wematch]

Avatar: The Legend of Neil

For many years, the four nations lived together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when a conspiracy to start a war began.

Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop it, but when the identity of the new avatar was found, he vanished.

Many years passed without anyone knowing where he was. Then he appeared in a farm in the Earth Kingdom, disguised as a firebender named Neil. And although his bending skills were weak when he got there, with practice he grew stronger every day that passed.

Now with a war looming by, Neil must find his own path into becoming the new avatar and bring balance to the world.

***

A huge thank you to @tntwme​ for being an amazing beta! <3

This fic was inspired by this amazing piece of art by @aymmidumps​, go check it out! [here]

You can also read it from the start on [AO3]

Book 1: Air

Chapter 4: Truth

Neil returns to train with Kevin on the following day. He begins to follow Kevin’s instructions but when Kevin orders him to adjust his stance for the fifth time, Neil bites his lip to refrain himself from speaking; he bites his lip so hard that he can taste blood in his mouth. Feeling ridiculous, Neil looks around to try to calm down and he finds Andrew already watching him. Andrew arches his eyebrow and something snaps in Neil. Andrew is right, why is he letting Kevin waste his time with basic things that he already knows? Neil gets up and turns around to leave.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kevin asks.

Neil spares him a glance and continues to walk away. “I’m done with this. I’m not a child.”

“How am I supposed to teach you if you can’t even master discipline itself?” Kevin shouts but Neil continues to walk. “I told you we’re going to start with the most basic exercises for me to determine where you stand,” Kevin continues and then after a moment he throws a fire punch at Neil.

Neil quickly turns around and blocks the attack. “You didn’t even test my knowledge at all,” Neil bites back. And he sees everyone stopping what they’re doing to watch them.

Kevin nods approvingly, “You know how to defend yourself but can you do anything else?”

Neil smirks. “Go on,” he challenges Kevin. He knows that he’s out of practice and he will not be anywhere near his level, but at least he can truly use fire and show Kevin that he knows something.

Kevin doesn’t hesitate and shoots several fire blasts. Neil blocks the first, redirects the second back to Kevin who easily blocks it, and the third one almost hits Neil sending him to the floor when he tries to block it.

Kevin creates a fire whip and twirls it around to make it bigger. Neil gets up in a jump and fire kicks towards Kevin, who easily blocks it with the whip. Kevin then attacks him with the fire whip and Neil is thrown onto the floor once again for trying to block it.

“That’s enough, Kevin,” Dan warns him.

Kevin looks in Dan’s direction. “He was the one that asked for this,” he replies but lets go of his fire. He takes a few steps closer to Neil. “You’re in terrible shape, you’re too slow and your bending has no strength behind it.”

Neil spits out the dirt from his mouth and sits up on the floor panting. “Will you bring me back into shape?”

Kevin nods with a serious face. “I will start designing a workout plan for you, and tomorrow--”

“Ugh, Kevin you take all the fun of things,” Allison interrupts him, which grants her an annoyed look from him. “And I believe I just won a bet. Everybody pay up, I told you that they would fight before the weekend.”

“Oh come on, this hardly counted as a fight,” Nicky whines. He looks at Neil and mouths “sorry.”

“Just pay up, and stop crying,” Allison mocks.

Neil isn’t entirely sure that he likes the idea of the others making bets about him. “You made a bet saying that we’re going to fight?”

“Not just that, she specifically said you’re going to snap from the ridiculous exercises,” Matt explains.

“They’re not ridiculous!” Kevin protests, “I started to train with those exercises too.” 

Neil gets up feeling done for the night and begins to walk towards his camp. He’s tired and bruised so when he reaches the top of the hill he sits down beneath a tree, exhausted. A few moments later, Andrew appears. He doesn’t say a word, he just stares at Neil.

“That was pathetic,” Neil says, running a hand over his hair. His bending is so weak. He doesn't understand it, he hasn't been using it for a while but before he ran away he was always one of the strongest fire benders in his academy. Bending fire came as easy to him as breathing. Now though, his bending was still there but had no force. He was weak and he needed to fix it.

“Yes, it was,” Andrew agrees.

“Fuck off, Andrew.”

Andrew chooses to ignore him and sits down at a safe distance from him. He slightly tilts his head to the side, studying Neil like he was a puzzle yet to be solved. “Truth for a truth,” he tells him.

“What?”

“I’ll trade you, a truth for a truth.”

Neil stares at him for a moment. Not entirely sure as to what Andrew wants to gain from this. “Okay,” Neil agrees, ultimately because he can’t pass up an opportunity to know more about Andrew..

“Who are you running away from?” 

Neil closes his fists, just thinking about the reason he’s here makes him feel on edge. “My father,” he answers. “Why are you here?”

“I made a deal with Kevin.”

“What kind of deal?” 

“Not your turn,” Andrew points out. “What about your mother?”

“Dead,” he answers without looking away from Andrew. He's not sure why he's answering these questions with the truth but Andrew just accepts his response and doesn't ask for more details or tries to comfort him. He just listens and stores that information away, and for the first time Neil finds someone that he feels it's easy to talk to.

“To answer your question,” Andrew starts, “Kevin said he'd find us jobs if we helped him find this place,” Andrew pauses and looks at Neil’s arm. “Now, who burned you?”

Neil is taken back, he thought he had been careful covering his arm, always wearing long sleeves. But Andrew must have seen the scars at some point on the field. At the end of the morning the sun becomes so hot that Neil can’t help but roll up his sleeves a little. “My father,” Neil answers. “How long have you been staying here?”

“Since spring last year,” Andrew gets up, apparently done with their game and without a word he leaves.

Neil stares at his figure walking away. And begins to think again at the terrible display of his skills as a firebender. He needs to get back into shape and the only way he can do it is if he starts training more. And the only time he can do it is at night.

***

Weeks pass in a blur, during the afternoon he trains with Kevin and at night he continues to practice alone. Neil can feel himself becoming much stronger physically, no longer having to stop to catch his breath after a couple of minutes of hard training. He’s quick to learn everything that Kevin teaches him, so it doesn't take them long to start training more advanced levels of firebending.

Even though he's much better and he knows a lot more complex firebending stances, his bending still has no power behind it. Kevin says that he needs to find his source of power, that firebenders can channel their power from anger or hatred but most draw their power from its source: the sun. Neil tries and tries to feel the sun heating his skin, to focus on it and to try to channel that source of power to no use. 

Neil goes back to the clearing after everyone leaves and continues practicing fire blasts. He sees no improvements, and he knows that Kevin is beginning to think he’s just weak. Neil doesn’t get it, he was so strong when he was younger. Firebending used to be so easy to learn back then. He was so good that his bending was the only thing that his father never complained about him. What would his father say if he saw how weak he was now? After all this time wasting his men to find an avatar that couldn’t even master one element. There would be no use for him, how could he destroy the other nations if he was like this? Lola would be so pissed for chasing after him for so long for nothing. And Nathan...Well, Nathan would make him wish he had died in the same fire that had killed his mother.

Neil begins to feel the panic rise in him. His mother is dead because of him and as long as he’s alive he'll always be running from Nathan, it’s just a matter of time until he gets caught. And as panic begins to settle he suddenly loses track of what he's doing. He's lifting away from the floor but he has no control of his actions. As the power of his fire grows and earth begins to crumble around him he realizes that he’s once again in the avatar state. Only once had he felt this kind of power inside of him, and it had been on his mother’s death. He tries to calm down. He can't let this control him. So much power and strength and he doesn't want anything to do with it. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes to focus, they have yet to catch him and he’s in no immediate danger. He continues to focus on his breathing and after a few moments he feels himself returning to the floor once again. 

Neil gets on his knees, his breathing hard, and there’s tears in his eyes that he cleans with his sleeve. He takes a deep breath and looks around. He didn't even try to do anything with his power, but without even trying he had caused destruction all around him. The grass and plants around him are on fire and if he doesn't stop it now it will expand to the fields. He calls the fire to him and as he calms down his breathing so does the fire around him extinguish. He turns around thinking of forgetting that this ever happened, when he sees Wymack is watching him. 

Neil freezes in his step. Wymack is stunned just staring at him and Neil takes a step back, immediately thinking about running away.

“Does anyone know?” Wymack asks.

“No,” Neil answers while scanning his surroundings for any more witnesses.

“I won't tell anyone, kid,” Wymack says when he notices Neil glancing around them. “You can stay.”

“I can't,” Neil starts feeling panic rise once again. Anyone could have just seen him. How could this happen? He couldn't even control it. He’s lucky that the area surrounding him is already half destroyed otherwise the others would surely notice the damage.

“That's your business Neil, I won't tell,” he reassures. “Have you started to learn the other elements?

Neil clenches his fists and shakes his head.

“I can teach you.”

Neil turns around and starts to walk away. “No, no one can know who I am.”

“No one has to,” Wymack tells him, “we can train at night.”

Neil listens but doesn’t stop walking. He packs his things, mounts his ostrich horse and starts to climb down the hill. He passes the farm and once he's about to pass the lake he suddenly comes to a halt. 

At the far end of the lake where you can see far away into the open road is a figure sitting down on a massive rock formation. The moonlight is giving enough light that after a moment he recognizes who it is. 

Neil's too far away and in between trees for Andrew to see him but after a moment Andrew tilts his head to the side and jumps to the floor. For a moment he just stands there in position, knees flexed, head bowed down. And then he turns towards Neil's direction and stares right at where he is.

Andrew catapults himself into the air. Neil is too stunned to do anything else besides stare at Andrew flying in his direction, in a such a controlled movement that makes him land only a few steps in front of Neil. The force of the impact makes the trees and vegetation around them sway for a moment. 

Andrew pointedly looks up at the bag at Neil's back, “Running away?”

Neil blinks twice, wondering how on earth did Andrew spot him so far away. “I need to keep moving.”

“Because of your father?” Andrew asks. Neil tightens the grip on his bag and doesn't answer. “Do you want to stay?”

“I'm putting everyone at risk if I stay.”

“That's not what I asked.”

Neil should leave, anyone could have seen him in the avatar state. But seeing Andrew watching the horizon, Andrew who has been watching him and questioning everything he tells him has made him pause. He's tired of running and for the first time he wants to stay. He wants to keep practicing his firebending, he wants to keep listening to everyone’s stories at lunch and see them fight just for the fun of it. He wants to stay and learn airbending. If he wants to stop running from his father he needs to master all four elements. He redirects his ostrich horse away from Andrew without saying anything else.

***

Next day comes and Neil walks towards the farm as if nothing had happened the night before. He barely got any sleep, trying to figure out what to do, but he's here. He made the decision to stay. He grabs a fresh baked bread and an apple and starts to eat as he walks to where he finished working yesterday. He knows that Andrew is watching him but he refuses to look at him for now, choosing to focus on his work.

During lunch he searches for Wymack and finds him talking to Kevin at the front of the house, both studying a book. He wonders what the notebook contains that's making them so focused and it’s in that moment that Wymack spots him.

“Need something?” He asks and Kevin immediately closes the notebook.

“I need to speak to you.” 

Wymack then looks at Kevin. “We can finish later.”

“I'll keep working on it inside,” Kevin replies and walks into the house.

Neil and Wymack both watch him enter. Then Wymack sighs, “That kid really doesn't take a break,” he comments. Neil looks at Wymack and he's slightly confused with the proud look the older man has.

Neil looks over his shoulder and talks only after Kevin closes the door to the house. “Will you train me?”

“Of course,” the airbender answers. “We can start later tonight but don't expect any special treatment.”

“I wasn't thinking about it,” he replies and goes back to his work. He never thought that he would learn a second element unless his father had caught him, but now he couldn’t wait to start.

When night sets and everyone goes to sleep, Neil goes to meet Wymack behind the barn.

“I have to be honest,” Wymack starts, running a hand over his beard, “I never thought I'd be the one training the avatar.”

“Where do we start?”

“Sit down,” Wymack tells him and sits on the floor in front of him. “Air is the element of freedom. The key to airbending is flexibility and finding and following the path of least resistance.”

“The best offense is a good defense,” Neil offers.

“Yes, that’s one way to put it,” Wymack nods approvingly. “Now, a good way to see this is to see how a leaf behaves in the wind.” He picks up a leaf and sends it away with a gush of wind. “Airbending is all about spiral movements,” he adds when the leaf begins to flutter down. “When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice.” He sends another gush of air towards the leaf that makes it fly further away. They watch it for a moment longer as it resumes fluttering down to the floor. “You need to let your mind and spirit be free, and that is why I need you to meditate.”

"How do I do that?"

“Just close your eyes,” Wymack does it and after a moment’s hesitation Neil does the same. “Focus on your breathing. In and out. Don’t let your mind wander. When it does, just go back to focus on your breathing. Let's try it for a couple of minutes.”

Neil tries to focus on his breathing but he begins to try to understand what he will gain by just sitting around. He tries to focus again. And begins to wonder if he’s going to actually use airbending or if he’s going to be weaker than he already is with fire. “I don’t think I’m doing this right,” he says, beginning to feel frustrated after a couple of minutes.

“There’s nothing to do. Just let your mind relax from all the stress and away from your thoughts,” Wymack opens his eyes and adds, “You don’t have to close your eyes, I like to watch the sun rise while I meditate, I feel it can be quite relaxing."

Neil nods. “I’ll keep trying it.”

***

Days pass in a blur, Neil works on the farm, practices firebending with Kevin and some nights he meets Wymack to teach him airbending. The nights he doesn't train with them he practices by himself. He's currently sitting down on top of the hill trying to meditate and failing when Andrew joins him.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asks, startling Neil.

Neil uncrosses his legs and looks to the side at where Andrew is standing."Just thinking," he answers, Andrew doesn't look like he believes him but seems to let it pass. "Can I have a go?" After Andrew gives him a short nod, Neil continues, "What were you doing on that hill all those nights ago?”

"I couldn't sleep so I was watching our surroundings." 

Neil nods understanding and looks ahead. He’s too familiar with having nightmares keeping him awake at night. Or waking him up and making him wish he never fell asleep in the first place. For a moment they just stay there, watching the sunset. 

“Have you thought about running away again?” Andrew asks him.

“Why?”

“Just trying to figure you out.”

“I’d like to figure out whatever’s wrong with me too,” Neil confesses.

 “Is that why you’re trying to meditate?” Neil blinks twice at Andrew and he adds, “It was obvious what you’re trying to do.”

“I was trying to meditate but I just don’t get it, it seems like my mind is incapable of stopping.”

“Does Wymack think it could help your bending?”

“My bending?” 

“For the way it is.”

“You don’t think I’m just weak, like Kevin keeps saying?”

“No. I see the frustration written all over your face whenever you use your bending,” he pauses, “something changed that affected it. You need to figure out what it is.”

Neil stares at him for a moment too long. “I never really thought about it that way. Wymack wants me to meditate to help my breathing and--” Neil stops mid sentence, his mind running a mile a minute trying to process what Andrew just suggested. He thought his bending was weak because he hadn’t used it for so long but what if that wasn’t the problem? The thing that completely changed his life was discovering that he’s the new avatar. Of having all that power available to him. What if by being scared of all that power he has been resisting it. Maybe even suppressing his bending as much as possible.

“I think I’ve just figured out why my bending is weak," Neil informs him while he studies Andrew's profile, "but I’m not sure how to fix it.”

“Don’t look at me," Andrew says without turning his way, "it’s your problem, you deal with it.”

***

Airbending is frustrating, mostly because Wymack wants him to meditate to clear his mind every time they meet and Neil isn't a creature to stay quiet for too long. But bending air is all about movement so once he starts to bend air Neil finds learning it to be easy.

“I think that’s enough meditation for today,” Wymack watches Neil for a moment. “Meditation i’s something you master with time, but it will allow you to learn proper breathing technique. And that will be important in any type of bending you’ll learn.”

Neil nods. “What now?

“Now, I think it’s time for a new exercise,” he looks up and points to a tree to their side. “See that tree?” Neil nods. “I want you to climb it to the top.”

Neil looks at the pine tree that Wymack is pointing at. It must be more than 30 feet high. 

Neil turns his attention back to Wymack with his eyebrows raised. So far Wymack has shown him proper foot placement and evasive maneuvers, but nothing that could help him with this. “And how do I do that?”

Wymack propels himself to the nearest tree branch that is taller than Neil. “You have to think as an airbender, we control the air that is all around us, so all you have to do is control the air for a smooth landing and redirect yourself to where you need to go,” the airbender lets himself fall and lands smoothly at Neil’s side. “Now, you try it from that same branch.”

Neil copies Wymack’s movements and when he lands next to the older man he begins to think that airbending is indeed quite liberating. “I think I got it,” Neil says, and turns once again to the tree. He propels himself higher this time and it allows him to jump a few branches up. He pauses for a moment, holding the tree’s trunk to gain balance and jumps again to the next one. On that branch only a small push of his feet is enough to send him further up and in no time he reaches the top branches where he still dares to land. He thinks that at that moment airbending truly seems the most freeing element. 

Neil takes a moment to take in the view surrounding him. It’s dark but the light from the moon allows him to see the shape of the mountains on the horizon, the moon reflected on the lake and Wymack’s house further down. He then takes a deep breath and steps into the air and lets himself fall, using airbending to control the fall and pausing at several branches before reaching the ground. 

Neil easily lands on his feet next to Wymack but the airbender isn’t even looking at him, he’s looking towards his left. Neil follows his gaze and finds Andrew staring back at him. He watches as Andrew tilts his head to the side studying him. Neil doesn’t move, he decides to wait for Andrew to take the first step. He may not know for how long Andrew has been watching him but one thing he does know: Andrew knows that he's the avatar.