Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn't belong to me, and I'm not getting paid for this.

Notes: I'm still a very new Avatar fan (only started watching last month), plus I did this in like four hours, so there's a good chance I'll make some mistakes, but that's what happens when you come aboard late, and Avatar comes on three different channels at different times. Not that I'm complaining, but it gets a little tricky to keep up.

Warning: This is inspired by The Secret of the Fire Nation (a.k.a. Serpent's Pass, and The Drill). Mind you, there aren't any spoilers that I'm aware of, but I felt I should say something.

The Legend of the Four

An Avatar: The Last Airbender Ficlet by

Nate Grey (XMAN0123-at-aol-dot-com)

There's a whole list of reasons why I never wanted to be the Avatar.

For starters, an instruction manual would've been nice.

And who decided I just had to drop everything whenever someone wanted (that's wanted, not necessarily needed) my help? I might not have much of a life, but it's still mine, and a vacation every now and then would be nice. Constantly fighting, then running, followed by fighting some more (and lets not forget running some more) gets to you eventually. I mean, I'm still human, as far as I know. I'm allowed to get tired, occasionally.

But I can't just say that. Why? Because everyone would just stare at me (except Toph, but even then she'd be thinking it, too) and say the exact same thing.

"You're the Avatar!"

Like that explains everything. You'd be surprised, in fact, how very little it explains, at least for me. I don't always have this instinctive knowledge of what I need to do. A lot of it is guesswork, with the rest coming through the advice of my friends.

The legend makes the whole situation even worse.

Well, technically, it's legends, and that's part of the problem. With the Avatar originating in a different nation each generation, the stories get pretty confusing, especially when you try to match them up and find the truth.

Even in just the Northern Air Temple, there were enough legends to make my head spin. It's funny, how many people are convinced they need the Avatar, but almost no one seems to really know what it is to be one. The one, I should say. The job is hard enough under normal circumstances. The Fire Nation having a hundred-year head start only makes it ten times as difficult.

Maybe that's why people rarely seem to care about what I need: they've been suffering for all that time. I guess they figure I owe them. And maybe I do.

But I'm not perfect. Sometimes, I don't even think I'm fit to be called the Avatar. I'm just a kid, the last of his kind, trying to save everyone. And you would think that, knowing that, everyone would in turn want to help me do it. But they're either dead set against me, or pretty much convinced that I can do it alone.

That's crazy. Alone, I would've failed a long time ago. And if I was really lucky, I'd probably be dead.

There are only two times when I really feel like the Avatar: when I'm in the Avatar State, and when I'm bending alongside my friends. The two times that, ironically, I'm depending on someone else's help the most.

If people knew that, would they still call me the Avatar? Would they stop ignoring my friends, and treat them with the respect that they deserve? Would they call us all the Avatar?

Probably not. All the legends insist that there's only one Avatar. Even the one that claims he might be in four different bodies at once.

Confused yet? I was, too. But it's that particular legend that makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

The Avatar is supposed to keep harmony between the four nations. And the best way to do that is to know what the future holds. According to this legend, Avatar Roku knew the Fire Nation would rise up and attempt to conquer the world. So in order to slow their progress, instead of just allowing his soul to pass on to another body, he split it into four pieces. Each nation would unknowingly have a portion of the Avatar.

It's not true, of course. Everyone knew that the Avatar would be an Airbender, and I have been able to use the three other types of bending, although with varying degrees of success.

But it's a comforting legend all the same. It tells me that I'm not alone. That there are others like me who know what it's like to carry the world on their shoulders. It would also explain a few things: the kinship I feel with Katara, Toph, and even Prince Zuko. And why I feel like I was meant to find them all. Nobody can hold the world on their shoulders alone for long, after all.

It's also why I feel a little guilty, when I look at Zuko, Katara, Sokka, and Toph. Maybe if I'd found them just a little sooner, they wouldn't bear the scars they do, visible and otherwise. Toph would probably hit me for thinking that way, and Zuko definitely would, though not for the same reason.

It's just that everything I do (and even more things I don't) seem to have consequences for everyone, especially those I have yet to meet. I hate having that kind of power. How do you save someone you don't even know exists?

Very few people can deal with that kind of pressure. I think that's why Katara always forgives me when I push her away. Because on some level, she knows that I'm exactly what I look like: a kid playing the Avatar as best he knows how.

I have yet to hear any legend that states the Avatar ever had any friends. But I like to think that they must have. The idea of being completely alone for so many lifetimes is a horrible thought. And besides, when I bend with Katara and Toph, I know I feel something. Maybe it's not another piece of my soul, but it's something more than simple kinship. Though, even that would be enough for me in the long run.

Even if that legend were true, and they were exactly who I thought they were, I could never tell them. It's bad enough that I got trapped into being the Avatar. That's a burden I would never put on my friends. Each of them travels with me willingly, and I never want that to change, even if it means going our separate ways.

But there is something there.

When Katara gave me my first real hug in a hundred years.

When I found myself cornered by Zuko in his quarters on the Fire Navy ship.

When I first felt Toph's fingertips brush against my own.

In those instances, though they had almost nothing in common, I felt something big and powerful, even scary. Whatever binds us and constantly brings us together, it's not something that any of us can fight for very long. Maybe we don't even want to fight it. But I'm glad it's there.

Even if we're not always friends, we'll always be together, and that means the world to me. Because something tells me that sooner than later, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

The End.

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Endnotes:

Yeah, I really do see Avatar on three channels (when I know it's on, anyway): Nickelodeon, Nick2, and Nicktoons Network. Thank God for digital cable. Incidentally, that's also how I got to see the latest "movie event" before it's aired around here, though I'm still not sure how that worked out. Again, not complaining.

Yes, I know Aang doesn't usually talk like this. Not aloud, at least. But that's why there's no dialogue. Neat how that works out, isn't it?

In retrospect, there's actually ONE reference to the "movie" here. But chances are, it's so small you'll miss it, and it's probably happened more than once in the series, anyway, so you wouldn't even consider it a spoiler. So I won't even draw attention to it, except to say Toph seems very "handy" for being blind.

I'll probably do something longer, with actual dialogue, once I've seen a bit more of Toph and gotten her character down. Which reminds me, as is the norm when I write for a new (to me, anyway) fandom, comments on characterization are greatly appreciated. In other words, if I got it wrong, or if you can't tell which parts I made up, say something. Short of actually sending me every episode, it's the only way I'll get better (and this way is free!).