Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA.
Chapter 1: The Great Glitch
Autumn 0 AG
The atmosphere surrounding the Southern Air Temple churned with the promise of a violent storm, and in the wake of blinding light emitting from slivers of early lightning, the mountain sizzled with the gloom of impending destruction. A tattooed boy of twelve did not notice the signs, however, as he boarded atop his sky bison, unknowingly leaving behind his home— a civilization of saffron that was yet to be put to permanent sleep by crimson.
The bison roared as the downpour struck. Thunder groaned, winds wailed, and the waters rumbled as the young monk rode above them. His hollers were tackled soon enough by a towering wave resembling the workings of a monsoon at sea. The bison floated, nearly lost to him as his hands slipped from the reins…
...until they seized hold of the reins again, lit aglow, for jolting through the seemingly helpless boy was a type of energy matching the force of thousands of lion turtles— a mechanism triggering the glow of his eyes and arrows in a brilliant sheen of white, tinted ever so slightly with a subtle sky blue. The world waited with bated breath as the glowing being sought purchase above his bison beneath the water. Tattooed palms struck together, scooping up the water around them and forming an icy cocoon. The Fire Nation's greatest threat, preserved by the energy of the Avatar Spirit, sank lower and lower given the density of the iceberg. His glowing eyes shut to a close, but the fate of the world that inched towards fire did not stop for him.
Late Spring 84 AG, South Sea
The greed of one corrupt Fire Lord spilled onto his successors and overthrew the harmonious world as people knew it. Blood was seldom spilled and more often molten inside burning bodies. The ashes of the innocent paved the streets, which were tread by the lucky ones— that is, those who were enslaved instead of executed. Time and time again, Earth's fertility and abundance was endangered by a promise of cremation.
These horrors of war were what rattled the planet's subconscious governing Spirit— a force, an entity, be what it may— from the inside. Years had passed by, nearly reaching a century since the last airbender was cocooned in the ice. No action was being taken as the planet continued to rot away. The time was coming to take another birth into a new body to rekindle hope, but abandoning the boy in the iceberg was out of the question. It was then that the subconscious Spirit sought to do whatever it took to preserve the monk in the ice-borne womb, simultaneously opting to be conceived in a designated other womb.
This struggle of the Avatar Spirit to preserve its original host while allowing for a more active agent was what began the great glitch that stopped the world.
Winter 84 AG, North Pole
"I'm afraid there is nothing else we can do, Chief."
It was the only time that the leaders of the Northern Water Tribe publicly shed tears. After many years of anticipation, the chief and chieftess were blessed with a child— a daughter, beautiful yet drained of the warmth of life. Pulsing within her was a kind of energy that the healers did not seem to recognize, and yet, the child was cold to the touch, perfectly still as if asleep, her chest barely rising and falling.
"Tui and La are the original healers," said Healer Yugoda. "We leave fate to their hands."
The walk to the North's Spirit Oasis was long and daunting even as the moonlight held an unspoken promise of aid. Chief Arnook, led by the moon priests, cast his hand on his sobbing wife's shoulder as she held their baby close to her bosom. Soon enough, they reached the sacred pond, eyeing their patron spirits, who faithfully circled each other in their koi forms. In the haze of his burning tears, Arnook looked at the full moon and uttered silent prayers. He took the baby into his arms, shakily kissed her cold forehead, and placed her in the pond.
The Goddess of the Moon and the God of the Ocean did not break their eternal dance, but they did look in the direction of the swaddled bundle that was placed in their waters, the reflection of the moon glistening upon her face. While La detected the presence of a dormant Avatar Spirit within the child, the Moon simply gave a subtle smile in the baby's direction.
This will be one for the humans' history books, the black koi vibrated. The Spirit is there within her, but most of it is tethered to the monk. For this little one, a nudge is very necessary.
Tui grinned knowingly at her oceanic mate before her tail lightly brushed against the swaddled bundle in the midst of her orbit. The baby's dark hair suddenly turned milky white, and as her eyes fluttered open, they glowed in a sheen of utter brilliance, slightly tinted in an ethereal light blue before dissipating, leaving behind baby blue orbs. A shrill, healthy cry pierced the oasis. Chief Arnook and Chieftess Ahnah reached for their baby in relief in spite of a moment of complete shock. The priests gawked at the miracle child, who was now being subject to the Northern leaders' kisses and showers of affection.
The moon seemed to hold a faint tint of sky blue for the rest of the night.
Winter 85 AG, South Pole
An ambitious one-year-old landed on his bum as he fell onto the pelts. With a wince, he kicked his chubby legs and wiggled his arms before finally managing to toss aside his restrictive overcoat. After that victory, he grabbed onto a nearby pelt that was slung over the wall and pulled himself back up. As Chief Hakoda and Chieftess Kya lost themselves in conversation with a guest, young Sokka ambled over to the flap of the tent, unseen by all save for his three- month-old sister, Katara, who babbled in his direction.
Sokka quickly waddled out of the tent and stepped into the snow, nearly plopping facedown. Before he wandered too far from the tent, he ended up having something grab his attention: a small, glimmering moonstone.
The day of his birth, the moonstone had washed up against the Southern shore, carried by the waves and the winds until it sought purchase right outside of the Southern leaders' home. Nourished by the gentle waves, it remained where it was, unnoticed for a few days until the village shaman caught sight of it during a snow ritual. While thought to be a marvel when first seen, given moonstones were considered sacred and were treated as blessings from Tui in the Water Tribe, this particular moonstone proved to be of a supernatural nature very quickly, for everyone in the tribe had tried— and failed— to pick it up from its place. Ideally, it should weigh about a few grams, and very minimal effort would be required for someone to bend down and take it into their palm. This moonstone, however, seemed to possess a weight greater than several thousand tons in spite of its small size. Not even the strongest tribesman in the Southern Water Tribe was able to move the moonstone at least a single millimeter, his crude efforts instead being answered by a momentary, blinding glow that froze everyone to their places. It was decided then that this immovable moonstone, which would soon enough become an object of worship, was to be left alone, entrusted to the care of the passing waves. Every now and then, it would glow for reasons unknown, the brilliance lasting only a few seconds at the most before it turned back to normal.
And it was this moonstone that suddenly began to glow in little Sokka's presence. He cooed in fascination at the shiny object and waddled forward, his tiny hand reaching for it, caressing it, taking it. Giggling at its shiny glow, he stepped back inside the tent and headed over to his baby sister, who took a similar fascination with it and ended up snatching it away from him. Sokka took it back from her immediately, making Katara cry, and as she took it back, he started wailing, "Mama! Amamama!"
"Sokka, what are you doing to your sister—" Kya didn't finish her sentence, instead shrieking in surprise as she saw the sacred, glowing moonstone secured in her fighting babies' little hands.
Later
"Sokka, you can't have that. Put it down, sweetie," came Kya's command. Given her inability to pick up the moonstone for herself, she guided her son's hand to where it hovered over the ground in a corner, urging him to let go of the stone, "Drop it, Sokka, come on. I don't want you swallowing this or anything."
But Sokka only held the stone close to him, drooling at the shiny object. Needless to say, it had become his obsession.
"It's no use," the chieftess turned to her husband, "He's not letting it go."
"Here, let me try something," Hakoda held his daughter with one arm and stepped over, kneeling beside his son, "Alright, Sokka, you gotta let go of the stone. Here, why don't you have this instead? It's way shinier. Take a look." And he offered the boy a white whalebone amulet, being sure to hold it under the light in a way that made it shimmer. Sokka took the bone with his other hand and looked at both white objects as if comparing them.
"Good boy! Now put down the moonstone. Careful, now."
But Sokka dropped the whalebone and kept eyeing the moonstone.
"We need to at least tie a string around that so he won't swallow it," Kya sighed defeatedly and went to fetch the said string. Katara, in the meantime, also reached for the stone from her place in her father's arms, succeeding in grasping it from her brother only for him to snatch it back. The boy wandered over to a pelt, taking his seat as he played with the stone while Katara whimpered.
"Oh dear, not again," Hakoda picked up the whalebone, thankful that she took it as an ample substitute as she grasped hold of it.
"I don't understand how my children are able to pick it up," the chieftain told their guest, who happened to be a shaman. "They're babies, how did they…?"
The shaman only smiled at the children before answering with, "It means their destinies are intertwined with the Avatar's. Your children are the keepers of the stone, Chief Hakoda. They are destined to safeguard the world's last hope."
"But the nature of the moonstone has never been fully understood for us to conclude it represents the Avatar's return," Kya noted as she struggled to tie a string around the moonstone, stopping her son from sucking on it.
"Couldn't this also just be a stone representing Tui?" Hakoda asked the shaman. "A moonstone represents Tui. Maybe this is the Goddess's way of telling us to be brave?"
"But this light is not purely white," the shaman said. "It has a peculiar light-bluish hue to it, don't you see?"
"The blue can represent...La, maybe…since he's the Spirit of the Ocean," the chief reasoned.
"Perhaps, but more often than not, a glow like this is connected to the Avatar Spirit. I would know, Chief Arnook. I have seen the eyes of our Water Tribe Avatars glow this exact way in our temples."
"Alright, alright, don't cry, sweetie," Kya gave up on tying the string with her son's shrill hollers. He resumed his admiration of the stone, repeatedly prevented from putting it in his mouth.
"I had initially reasoned that one of your children might be presented as the next Avatar considering the Air Nomad is likely not alive and the cycle would approach the Water Tribe next," the shaman explained his reasoning, "but neither Sokka nor Katara picked all of the Avatar relics. They would have if these relics seemed familiar, but that is not the case."
Indeed, the relics were highly treasured and guarded in the Southern Water Tribe, for the relics were sent to their tribe by the Air Nomads of the Southern Air Temple over a hundred years ago after the last avatar had been told of his status, likely in anticipation of a future need.
"If it's true that this moonstone has a reason for glowing this way, then it's true that the Avatar has returned in some way, shape, or form. And your children are going to be the ones guiding the Avatar. And as for the relics…I believe it's best if we sent them discreetly to the Northern Water Tribe."
"But we hadn't had contact with our sister tribe in so long," Hakoda frowned, "And it's on the other side of the world. We will have to send some of our best men for this rigorous expedition—"
"That will not be necessary. We have a crew that's leaving for Omashu. We can send the package with them, and they will mail it through the Omashu mail system. The delivery will be expedited to reach Chilani Village in the northwestern Earth Kingdom, and from there, it will be delivered by boat to the Northern Water Tribe."
"Are you sure about this?"
"This is the best way, Chief," the shaman said firmly. "If we are caught by Fire Nation officials on our way to the sister tribe, they will mistake us for plotting against them and even destroy the relics. The Water Tribe will be considered a target."
Hakoda took a deep breath and nodded, "Alright then."
"A word of advice, Chief. Keep track of the soot." Narrowing his eyes, "The Fire Nation leaves a putrid trail."
Winter 85 AG, North Pole
Yue, covered with black ink that she had smeared all over herself and her pristine white dress, clapped and babbled as she played with the four toys that she had chosen from stacks of thousands: a turtle made of clay, a pull-string propeller resembling a mini glider, a hog monkey crafted out of wood, and a hand drum. Ahnah marveled over her daughter's joy, planting kisses over her chubby cheeks and smoothing her long white hair.
"It is just we suspected," a priest told Arnook, pulling him away from his momentary bliss of watching his wife and daughter, "Our princess is spirit-touched, no doubt, but she is also the Fire Nation's greatest threat."
Fear glazed over the chief, a heavy burden knotting up his heart, "What are you saying? What did you suspect?"
"Chief—"
"She was blessed by the Moon Spirit," Arnook reasoned, "She's not an enemy of the Fire Nation. She's an innocent child—"
"That glow that came from her eyes when she was a baby...that was no ordinary glow, Chief," the priest said, gesturing to the toys that Yue was currently playing with, "You see those toys? Those aren't toys. They are the four Avatar relics. Each toy corresponds to a nation. The Avatar, who governs the four nations, has always chosen these same relics in every incarnation because they were familiar."
"It must be a coincidence," the chief said, "Surely it's possible that some children will pick the same exact toys without the familiarity element—"
"This method is the most accurate method of identifying the Avatar," the priest said. "It almost never fails. It's not impossible, either, is it? The long lost Air Nomad must have breathed his last and passed the legacy over to your little one."
Ahnah, having been hearing the conversation from afar, shook her head, frantically, "My daughter can't be the Avatar." Drawing her daughter close to her, "She could be killed out there, she can't be! The Fire Nation is ruthless...Do you know how many people they've killed?! The millions of people who have lost their lives?! My Yue could never…!"
"No matter how many fears one may have, the truth cannot become a lie, Chieftess," the priest eyed the white-haired baby, "Princess Yue is the world's last hope for peace, and we must protect her at all costs."
A/N: So I got this idea from a popular theory that's been circulating ever since Legend of Korra ended: the theory that Yue could've been the next Avatar. It's a complicated theory that I'm frankly a bit lazy to explain, but the gist of it goes back to LOK's frankly shitty "reinterpretation" of Yin and Yang, how A:TLA mentioned Tui and La as Yin and Yang and how LOK mentioned Raava and Vaatu as Yin and Yang, how Yue could've been connected to Raava in this regard since she's connected to Tui (Yin) already, etc. Now I'm not a fan of Korra or the comics at all, but I did want to entertain the idea of Avatar Yue in a way that didn't include the daunting LOK BS and which didn't seem Mary Sue-ish. Also, this is an experimental piece for now, and I'll have to see how it develops further down the road. I just wanted to get my thoughts out there. Thanks for reading!