War. War never changes.
Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai with ancient knowledge from the spirits. Avatar Korra tapped into the powers of Raava to defeat Unulaq. Kuvira the Great Uniter united the broken Earth Kingdom, forging an empire that lasted a hundred years. But war never changes.
The Four Nations changed forever on the last day of the era of Korra when Kuvira defeated and killed the Avatar at the Battle of Republic City. Prince Wu vanished into exile, the Avatar's companions with him, and the Earth Empire's dominance was secured.
But while Kuvira may have been satisfied with the mainland, her successors were not. With Avatar Taijin on their side, the Earth Empire was barely held back by the might of the Fire Navy, the prowess of the Water Tribes, and the heroics of the True Kingdom. On the homefront, technology surged, with spirit vine power leading to a renaissance as the meatgrinder wore on for a hundred years. And then, there came a day when the stalemate could no longer stand.
Spears of spirit fire rained from the heavens. All of man's greatest works were laid low, reduced to rubble and radiation. Some survived in immense underground vaults. Others hid atop the highest peaks. As the fires died, some began to emerge and rebuild civilization. But scars do not heal easily. And the earth has not yet forgotten…
"Izo."
"Izo."
Izo stood in a dark forest, bedecked in the brilliant blue and gold of his Vault-issued robes. Before him stood a young woman in a blue vest, with shoulder-length hair and a musclebound physique. Beside her was a squat man dressed in ornate green robes and bearing a sumptuous mustache.
"Izo." they said in unison. Their words echoed in the darkness, filling his very being. "Izo." The woman took a step towards him.
"W-what do you want?" Izo asked, stepping back as the man began advancing on him as well. Both their eyes began to glow a blinding white. "Izo. Izo. IZO!"
Izo sat bolt upright in bed, banging his head on the stone ceiling. "Good morning, (Izo)." greeted the three-armed machine hanging from the ceiling. "It is (three) hours past your alarm. You have missed: Breakfast, algebra class-"
"I know, Che." Izo's voice cut through the Mr. Handy's calming accent.
"Your meal awaits you on the table. I have removed your Vault-Tec standard attire from the (closet) and placed it beside your breakfast. Additional message from: Mom. (Happy birthday!)"
"Thanks, Che." Izo pulled himself from the alcove containing his bed and dug into his eggs with mystery meat. The cook robots had done a good job, relatively speaking. "I had the dream again," he said between bites. "Do you suppose my subconscious is trying to tell me something?" If he didn't know better, he'd say the robot looked uncomfortable at this .
"Finish (eating) and (get dressed.) Then, come with me. The Overseer wishes to see you."
Izo rushed through his morning routine: breakfast, topknot, squeezing into the size-too-small Vault suit, and out the door to follow Che. Left, straight, left, down an elevator Izo never knew existed, and into the Command and Control Center. All four walls and a good portion of the ceiling were covered by screens displaying walls of rapidly scrolling text and fluctuating indicators. Overseer Shomi sat in the center of it all, perched in a chair surrounded entirely by keypads. He looks like a human-shaped spider, thought Izo. "Ah, you're finally here." he said as he pressed a button and the control panels retracted into the floor. "As I'm sure you know, today is your sixteenth birthday. Happy birthday, by the way. But regrettably, we haven't the time for festivities. I'm told by your parents that you've been having a dream repeatedly? A dream consisting only of a woman and a man with glowing eyes calling your name?"
"Yeah, but it's just a dream, right?...right?" Izo gave the Overseer a confused look. "Well, do you remember when you tried to help the earthbenders with expanding the Vault seven years ago?"
"Hey there, Izo!" said the muscular man with the heavy beard. He, two other men, and a woman pounded away at the end of the tunnel.
"Hey, Lahu!" Izo walked up to the earthbenders at work. "Mind if I watch?"
"Actually," said the woman, "how'd you feel about helping?"
"But how?" Izo replied? "I'm a firebender, not an earthbender."
"Well, how do you know that?" asked the woman. "Try it and see." Izo reached out to the stone wall as the woman raised her hands. "Just get your hands in there and push it down the hall." Izo placed both palms on a man-sized protrusion of stone, focused, and wrenched it across the hall.
It rocketed down the corridor, making an ear-piercing shriek as it ground against the floor and smashed into pieces against the wall.
"Whoa there, Fero. Tone it down." said Lahu. Fero's only response was to stare, utterly floored, at the broken boulder.
"Yeah, I remember." said Izo. "What of it?"
"Well," replied the Overseer, "with Fero and Lahu's testimony, we concluded Fero could not have thrown the rock that hard by herself. Now I'm going to show you some pictures, and I want you to tell me if you recognize them." He held up a drawing of a teen with a scar over his left eye and his head shaved except for a long ponytail.
"It's strange, I feel like I know him somehow, something about capturing me, but I can confidently say I've never seen him in my life. But why are you showing me these?"
"It will, I suspect, become clear shortly." He held up the next image, a black and white photograph.
"That's the woman from my dream!" Izo instantly recognized the picture. "How did you get a picture of her?" The Overseer's answer was to raise the third card, a color photo.
"Okay, that's it. How are you pulling these out of my head?" Izo threw up his hands in frustration and confusion. "I knew you were a spirit this whole time-"
"The first image," interrupted the Overseer, "was a young Fire Lord Zuko, from before he was anything more than a banished prince sent out on an impossible mission. The second image was Avatar Korra." Izo's ranting stopped. "I suppose the third image was Avatar Taijin?"
"Correct. Now carefully consider the information before you. You're a firebending prodigy, despite your lineage suggesting otherwise. A strange incident with bending you'd normally be unable to perform. Vivid dreams of past Avatars. You knew who Prince Zuko was from a drawing made long before he was of historical interest. Think about it."
Izo thought about it. Then it hit him like lightning. "Wait, you're telling me I'm the Avatar?"