Revive: An Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, no matter how many times I try to sue for the rights and my lawyer just laughs in my face.

Introduction

I suppose recording the events of the past several years isn't such a terrible idea in its entirety, but right now, it's annoying as hell.

Emmett's probably right about the whole thing needing to be recorded and distributed, but quite honestly, I just don't know if I have it in me to write down everything that's happened in my life starting a couple years ago. I'm not patient, or good with words like he is, but when I suggested that he write out our entire chronicle, he said that I had to be the one to write it because it was really about me.

Well, this entire mess involves Emmett too, but even when I told him that he wouldn't budge. And now, even as I'm writing this, he won't leave me alone. Yes, Em, I know you're reading over my shoulder. Go find a way to make yourself useful, although for you it might be kind of difficult. You're pretty much useless overall.

Yeah, shut up. You know I don't mean it- at least not 100%. Anyways, I guess I should probably stop wasting your time and just begin. If anyone actually reads this, I don't want to bore them to tears by spending the entire narration insulting Emmett. As fun as it is- Shut up, Em- I'll just get to the point. Introductions would be a good place to start.

My name is Maia, and I'm fifteen years old. I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska, and before you ask, no, I'm not some hick that walks around with a thing of wheat stuck in her mouth. Lincoln is actually a pretty big city, and a college town to boot. Emmett's sixteen, but only really four months older than me. However, it is a plus that he's of driving age now because we can (sort of) drive legally. Not that every single thing we do is legal, but it's nice to know that if we were caught driving, we wouldn't be in as deep trouble as we would be if he didn't have a somewhat legitimate license along with finally starting to look his age. But I guess discussing Emmett's recently grown out of baby face isn't really important to the story, so I'll move on to bigger and better things. You see, my story begins quite a while back, before I was even born or anyone even dreamed of my generation's existence. I know it's cheesy, and kind of incredulous, but you'll have to bear with me.

Long ago, the world was divided not into seven continents and many countries included within them, but rather four different nations: the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads. Certain people in each nation were "benders". They possessed the ability to control, or bend, the element of their respective nation. Bending was a sacred art, and was well respected until things slowly began to change. We'll discuss that later though.

One person in the entire world was given the ability to not bend just one element but rather all four, destined to become a master of water, fire, earth, and air. This individual was called the Avatar, and they were tasked with keeping the world in a state of balance and peace. The Avatar was a reincarnated spirit, and at the end of one Avatar's life, the spirit was reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle. The Avatar also had phenomenal cosmic powers, and was able to access the power of all of their past lives in order to perform feats of inhuman proportions.

However, the balance of the world began to tip and crumble, and even the Avatar wasn't able to stop the crash. Certain non-benders began to feel oppressed by their bending counterparts, some of which, but not the majority, were becoming corrupt and drunk with power. The current Avatar of the time, Avatar Korra, and many others worked during this dark time to try and stop this movement, but it gained too much momentum and eventually succeeded as Avatar Korra fell. Since then, the non-bending group that was the backbone of the revolution called the Equalists have worked to fade bending out of society and memory as well as much of the legend and lore of the four nations and their respective cultures and disciplines. Bending still exists, however, but those with the gift don't know that they possess it, or if they find that they can make a certain element do things that shouldn't be possible, they dismiss it as a coincidence or hallucination. When raised under the pretense that things aren't possible, one believes that when it happens, it isn't real. In the rare case that someone fully realizes that they have control over an element, they are almost inevitably found and either imprisoned or killed depending on their aptitude. Such is the way of the Equalists. Under their rule, the world morphed into what it is today. You don't see them, but they're there, in the shadows trying to prevent bending from reappearing in society and to keep "equality", although their version of it is really nothing of the sort.

Just as the benders do, the Avatar still exists, but the case is still the same. Often, the chosen one never becomes aware of their own power, and the spirit simply reincarnates into the next element in the cycle. Even though the four elemental nations have since been broken apart, the cycle still continues by each Avatar being born into the next element. Their geographical location is irrelevant. This makes it all the more difficult for the Equalists to find the new reborn Avatar, but they almost never fail. They monitor them for their whole lives, making sure they never realize their power, and if they do, they're either imprisoned or killed depending on how powerful they've become. If they've become too dangerous to keep imprisoned, they are executed on spot, without any warning or chance to retaliate. The Equalists have succeeded in this quest thus far, and there hasn't been a fully realized Avatar since the time or Avatar Korra.

That's where I come in. You see… I'm kind of the Avatar.

…Erm…

You see, Em! It still sounds ridiculous. No one's going to believe this when they read it, especially after I told them all of that. I know all of you readers probably think I'm a delusional freak by now between the impromptu history lesson and declaration, but I swear by the sun that I'm not crazy. I am the Avatar, and as much as it doesn't make sense, as dumb as it sounds, I'm telling nothing but the truth. I've been fighting the Equalists for over a year now, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't been hallucinating the entire time.

I can sort of provide some support to my claim though. You might've heard about some weird things somewhere about evidence of fights that no one saw, areas or towns that look like a tornado went though them when there was no storm, or perhaps rumors of strange feats that no one can really explain. These rumors are kind of hard to come by, since the Equalists are pretty good at keeping things hidden, but information gets around, and a news crew will occasionally report on something that they don't even know exactly what it is before it can be covered up. These instances are kind of what happen as I try to embark on my journey, and as I tried my hardest not to be overcome by the Equalists that were trying to kill me.

Fun stuff.

But anyways, even if you don't believe me at this point, I still suggest reading through this if I ever manage to finish it. Who knows, I might convince you along the way, or heck, I might even amuse you. I've done a lot of pretty stupid things during my journey/quest/thing, and according to Emmett they're pretty hilarious to watch, as long as they're not the stupid things that almost get us killed. That's a whole other matter. And even if you don't believe me or find my antics even mildly amusing, perhaps you'll learn something worthwhile in this thing, or else I'm just going to stop writing right now. There wouldn't be any point in continuing writing it, because I'm certainly not detailing everything out for my own pleasure.

I'll warn you though, things get a little wacky along the way. If you're one of the skeptics, you probably won't believe a lot of it. If it hadn't happened to me, I probably wouldn't have either. I'm not going to back down on what I say though, because quite frankly, as I just said this happened to me and I don't want to step out because a couple of hecklers are criticizing me. I promise though, that this chronicle will be nothing but the truth. I'm not going to say that Emmett is an attractive male specimen that makes me swoon and sway every time he catches my eye, because one, it's nowhere near the truth, and two, I don't want to unwittingly create him his own fangirl base, because that's certainly something that he doesn't deserve.

Okay, I should probably stop making jokes at his expense, because he's going to be proofreading this later and I'm going to get my butt kicked. The point of this whole thing it to get the truth out and help restore the world to what it was, with bending not suppressed and true equality everywhere. I'm not going to exaggerate things and blow them out of proportion, because beside the fact that the process of doing to requires actual cognitive effort and creative ability I also don't want to discredit myself. Once enough people start believing me, things will start catching on. People need to know what could've been, and what can still be if we re-incorporate bending back into our lives. We have the right to our history and to our lost arts, and we should all be fighting to regain it back. That's why, even though I'm not going to exactly enjoy it, Emmett's right in the fact that this needs to be written, because people can't fight for what they don't believe in or what they don't even know exists.

I guess, in conclusion, if you've managed to pull through this painful introduction, congratulations. I can't control if you keep reading though, and that's up to you. Just remember what I've said. This could change our entire lives as we know it, and don't think that you can't make a difference. Just you knowing tips the balance a little bit more in our favor. The more who know, the less advantage the Equalists have. If you really care, I'll see you around. If not, well, you'll probably be hearing of my soon anyways by other means.

-Avatar Maia

A/N: Okay, I know that was a little cheesy, but this little plot bunny crept into my head the other night, and I've been itching to write it. This was just the best way I could think of to expose some of the premise and introduce a couple characters. As you've probably inferred, this story is about a modern day Avatar and how she goes on her journey to become a fully realized bender in all four disciplines and restore the lost art of bending to the world.

One of the important details is that neither of the television shows that this entire fic is based off of exist in this version of our world. I know that might sound weird, but that's how is going to go down :) It always seems that people who get stuck in the Avatar world or are a modern day bender know about the entire Avatarverse from the TV show, and sometimes that can lead to Mary Sues except in some cases. That's mainly what I'm trying to avoid in this fic. Please inform me at once of any emerging Sue traits.

Think of this chapter as a pilot of sorts. If people like it and want to read more, I'll keep writing. I just want to see if someone will bite the idea and think it could actually go somewhere :D Thanks for reading the introduction to Revive as well as this extremely long author's note :) Reviews are always appreciated. Even a story alert or favorite is good just to know that there is interest in the story. Thanks for your time!

~haaschiibrownii (I'm going to change this username soon because it's just getting a little old. If anyone has any ideas, they're much appreciated. I can't seem to think of a good one :P)