265 AG - All Elements Mastered
Coming home was a strange experience for Niva. It had been ten years since she and Lavi fled from their village. She was a completely different person now. Coming back to the place where she'd been cripplingly anxious and prone to bouts of explosive, dangerous earthbending felt like stepping back through time.
Had the village always been this small?
Perhaps it was just a matter of perspective. Seeing the entire world and all the wonders it had to bestow did a great deal to broaden one’s horizons. Besides, small was perhaps the wrong word. Cozy. That was a good word. Nothing wrong with cozy. Cozy. Compact.
Maybe a little congested.
Niva hummed to herself as she looked upon the village from the roof of their childhood home. Here, taking in the entirety of it with a refreshing breeze brushing against her certainly felt nice. She could appreciate it best from this view. The peacefulness. The familiarity.
And yet, all she could feel was a cage.
Perhaps it was because this was a place of bad memories. Of a different person. The laughingstock of her class, the girl who cowered behind her sister, who would panic and flee into the woods if more than two people tried talking to her at the same time.
Now she was different. Even upon her return, she didn’t tell anyone why she’d left or where she’d disappeared to. She was stronger, more confident, and less agitated. All that time meditating with the airbenders did wonders for her nerves. And she had the peace of mind knowing if she wanted to hide, to be alone for a while, nobody could chase her. She could pin them in place if she wanted to.
She slid off the roof and floated gently to the ground. From where she was perched, she could see her old teacher’s home. Master Fala had tried to teach her earthbending, but she’d been so anxious that she was a poor student at best.
“Maybe I should show him what I’ve learned,” she smiled.
She walked down the road towards her old master’s house. Well, perhaps not walked. When she was in especially high spirits, Niva had taken to gliding along small gusts of wind along the soles of her feet. Almost like a skater. As she mastered airbending, it sometimes happened without her even thinking.
Her toes finally touched the ground when she made it to Master Fala’s door. With a sense of certainty, she grabbed the small knocker on the face and gave it two taps.
The door opened and she saw Fala. He was far older than the last time she’d seen him. His hair was greying, and there were wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
“It’s me, Master Fala. Niva.”
Fala blinked, leaning forward slightly and narrowing his eyes. “Niva? Oh. By the crust it really is you!” he exclaimed, brow raising to his silver hairline. “I almost didn’t recognize you. Your stature is… well, immaculate!”
Niva chuckled softly. “Thanks. May I come in?”
“Of course,” Fala said, stepping aside. “Where did you run off to?”
“Me and Lavi decided to travel,” Niva explained. “That’s why she asked you for earthbending scrolls. So I could practice on the road.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Fala said with a smile, taking Niva’s coat and hanging it on a rack of polished stone. “And in truth, that wasn’t a bad idea. No doubt a bit of adventure helped you feel more connected to the earth, yes?”
“You could say that,” Niva smiled.
“Would you like some tea?” Fala asked. “I’d love to hear if it did you any good.”
“I’d love some. And it did. I found I really connected with sandbending, actually.”
“Sandben- Oh, of course! Sandbending!” Fala exclaimed, smacking his forehead. “Oh, you were so fleeting on your feet, I should have realized!”
Niva chuckled as she joined Fala at his table. “It was a chance discovery. But it was the foot in the door I needed. It was a lot easier to learn with something that suited me.”
“I’m sure it was,” Fala said warmly as he produced a kettle from the stove and a pair of teacups alongside it before setting it all on the table. “You certainly carry yourself with greater confidence. Genuine confidence. People who say such a thing is easy to fake do not pay attention to one’s stance.”
“I’m doing a lot better. Lavi spent the last ten years coaxing me out of my shell. Well, Lavi and a few others. We’ve traveled all over the world,” Niva smiled.
“Stones alive,” Master Fala exclaimed. “To the Water Tribes? The Fire Nation?”
Niva nodded.
“Republic City?”
“Oh, hell no! Lavi wouldn’t touch that place with a thirty yard podao!” Niva giggled.
“Really? Boisterous girl like her, I would think she’d love the big city,” Fala laughed.
“No. She liked the Air Temples, though,” Niva smiled.
Fala’s brow quirked. “Water Tribe, Fire Nation, Air Temples… why the interest in the four elements?” Fala asked. “If I recall, your sister wasn’t a bender.”
“There were still things to learn there,” Niva said. “She actually attached a Kyoshi Warrior fan to the end of her spear, and it’s great against firebenders.”
“Oh my,” Fala blinked. “She wasn’t out picking fights with firebenders was she?”
“Not deliberately,” Niva giggled. “No, trouble was more interested in finding us than waiting for us to find them. Turns out trouble is seldom that patient.”
“Interesting,” Fala said. “You know, for a moment I was starting to think that Lavi was the Avatar.”
“No, not at all,” Niva smiled. “I am.”
Fala choked on his tea, thumping a fist against his chest as he cocked into his free mouth. He looked up at Niva, whose face was creased with apology for her timing. “Y-You’re serious?”
Niva nodded before flourishing her hand. In her palm, Fala could see a small sphere of air gather. Droplets of water were plucked from all around them and spine around the orb. Then a string of pebbles. Then finally a thin jet of fire. A small, but unmistakable display of proof. A hand sized trick that only the Avatar could do.
Fala’s jaw dropped. Out of all the people to be revealed as the Avatar after the death of Avatar Korra, flighty little Niva was the last person he would have suspected. “Well I’ll be…”
Niva shook away the display in her palm. “That’s why me and Lavi left. The White Lotus wanted to bring me to the middle of nowhere to train. And they wouldn’t let her come with me. I freaked out and ran, and so Lavi decided to travel on the road with me.”
Fala met Niva’s gaze after that, incredulity slowly fading away into a look of fondness. Of pride. “And look at you now,” he said appraisingly. “A self made woman if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Yeah. All it took was being able to do things at my own pace,” Niva said, looking down into her tea with a fond smile. “You know, Lavi encouraged me to socialize while we were traveling. First time I completely messed up. Got my words scrambled and made two women I was talking to really uncomfortable. But Lavi was so proud of me because it was the first time I’d even struck up a conversation on my own.”
Fala chuckled. “That does sound like an iteration of Niva that I am familiar with. Even so, Lavi was right. If we only ever did anything that we got right on the first try, nobody would do anything ever.”
“I know that. Lavi was always very encouraging. Any step forward was worth celebrating for her. It was a lot slower, but… more manageable.”
“Indeed. Besides, the Avatar’s Journey is a marathon. Not a sprint,” Fala nodded, daring to sip his tea again.
“Lavi said the same thing,” Niva laughed.
“Well, since you’re home I take it your journey is over?”
Niva nodded.
“Then you’re a fully realized Avatar?”
She nodded again.
“So what will you do now? Going out into the world without Lavi must be new territory for you.”
Niva looked up, confused. “Without Lavi?”
“Well she came with you to help you finalize your training.” Fala said. “And now that’s complete, you’re ready to handle things on your own, yes?”
“I…” Niva hadn’t thought about that. She had grown so accustomed to travelling with her sister the last ten years, the idea of leaving without her was as foreign and ancient sounding as an aggressive Fire Nation. “I suppose…”
Fala gave her a sympathetic look. “Hey now. It’s alright to feel uncertain. Being truly on your own always takes time to adjust. Especially in your situation. But in time you’ll realize it’s best for you both.”
“What… do you mean?”
“Well for as long as anyone has known you both, you have been Lavi and Niva,” Fala said. “As intertwined as Tui and La themselves. A package deal. But people are not a two-for-one special. They are individuals. And in order to know who we are as individuals, we have to know what we’re like on our own. You’ve completed your Avatar training thanks to Lavi’s help. But you and you alone can make yourself Avatar Niva.”
Niva sat back, looking down into her cup. That was true. The Avatar was always a solo act. Granted no Avatar ever did things alone, but those the Avatar was close to always seemed to be forgotten by history. She only knew of Korra’s wife because Korra herself told her. And she only knew of Aang’s friends because his descendants told her. The statues in the different temples to the Avatar only ever showed a single person.
She would either split apart from Lavi, or history would do it for her.
“...I don’t see why Lavi can’t continue travelling with me.”
“Is that what she wants?” Fala asked.
Niva opened her mouth, then closed it. “That… is a good question,” she said quietly.
Truth be told she didn’t even know where Lavi was. They had spent the last few months largely apart from one another. Niva stayed inside, while Lavi was out working odd jobs and telling stories of her travels, while leaving the fact that Niva was the Avatar out of them at her request. They spoke every evening, and had taken to bunking in Lavi’s old room like they had on the road, but they weren’t as intertwined as they had been since they returned.
Maybe Lavi didn’t want to go back on the road with her. She was almost thirty, she most certainly didn’t want to keep watching over her baby sister for the rest of her life. Maybe…
“You might be right,” Niva said, even as the words felt like muck on her tongue. “Maybe it would be… good for us.” Even as she said it, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. But that was just nerves. The twisting in one’s stomach before they took a plunge into the unknown. She just had to do it. And then she’d know for certain that it would be good for her.
Surely.
Niva left Fala’s home after a few more cups of tea, and some stories of her travels. But the twisting feeling in her gut wouldn’t leave. She headed out to the inn, the only place in the village that saw real traffic for travellers on the road to Ba Sing Se. It was there she saw Lavi at the bar, chatting up a pretty young barmaid.
She stood there in the doorway watching her. She looked smaller without all those weapons and countermeasures strapped to her body. She hadn’t seen her without the grounding brace across her back in almost a year. An ingenious design meant to protect her from lightning and direct it into the ground. She’d actually designed it while Niva was learning to redirect lightning with firebending.
She smiled as she remembered the long nights of her hammering away at the steel.
“You’re sure it’s going to work?”
“I’m certain I will not be satisfied until I know for certain,” Lavi had responded with a grin of determination.
Niva watched her work into the night on that grounding brace, a smile on her face all the while. It was a delight watching Lavi work on a passion project like that one. It was a fond memory. One of many Niva kept coming back to when she was alone and her thoughts were aimless.
Then the smile fell. Lavi was positively beaming as she charmed the barmaid. She’d always been flirtatious on the road, chatting up village girls everywhere she went. But travelling with Niva meant she never stuck around. Her sister was a romantic sort, and couldn’t contain herself for very long, but she had to. For Niva’s sake.
Now she looked brighter than Niva had ever seen her. Because here, there was no rush. There was nowhere else Lavi had to be. No important Avatar thing they had to rush off to do. She could just be herself with a pretty lady and be all the better for it.
Niva smiled at that. It wasn’t the most natural smile she ever made, but it was genuine. This was good. Lavi had done so much for her without needing to. She deserved this. She deserved to relax. To just be. For everything she did, she deserved a lifelong vacation. Maybe now that Niva was… self reliant, she finally could take one.
She turned and left the inn, leaving Lavi to her drinks and women.
Inside, Lavi had just finished her drink and was buying the entire bar a round.
“So, am I going to see you tomorrow?” The bartender smirked.
“No,” Lavi smiled. “I can see it in my sister’s eyes, she’s got the itch to get back on the road.”
“Aw, that’s a shame,” the bartender said with an exaggerated pout. “Sure I can’t convince you to linger for a little while and catch up later?”
Lavi’s smile widened into that charming grin. “Tempting. But I’d never leave my family hanging.”
“Aww,” the bartender smiled. “Your sister must be very special.”
“Literally,” Lavi said, leaning close. “Don’t spread this around, but she’s the Avatar.”
The bartender blinked, her eyes widening slightly. “W-Wait, really?”
Lavi nodded. “Yup. And we’ve been on the road for years doing Avatar stuff together.”
A beat passed of utter silence before the bartender spoke again. “I’m not sure if I believe you because you’re visibly armed to the teeth or because you’re just so damn charming.”
“You should meet Niva, she’s downright adorable,” Lavi chuckled. “If that girl wasn’t so nervous, she’d have a gaggle of women following her everywhere.”
“I mean… I could work with nervous,” the bartender said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “The nervous ones are adorable.”
“Niva was always next level nervous,” Lavi said. “She’s a lot better now, but she still would rather do anything else than talk to other people.”
“Aw, that’s a shame,” the bartender sighed. “Is that why you travel with her? Are you the face woman? Her manager?”
“I travel with her because she’s my sister and I love her.”
“...Okay fair enough,” the bartender relented. “So no settling down for you?”
“Guess not, but that’s fine. Travelling with Niva’s been an unforgettable experience.”
“That does sound nice,” the bartender said with a smirk. “But just so you know, you’re gonna leave every girl in the world lamenting the fact they could never take you home. Live with that, heartbreaker.”
Lavi winked. “Suffer.”
Niva waited until night fell, deciding to leave quietly. She didn’t like goodbyes, and her resolve would crumble if she had to endure one. Lavi deserved to be free of the burden Niva had put on her shoulders.
When the moon was high in the sky, Niva collected her rucksack and left a note on Lavi’s pillow. Her sister still wasn’t home from the bar. She crept downstairs and slipped out the door, taking care to close it as quietly as she could.
“Checking for door mites?”
Niva squeaked and whirled around, a pale blue flame already in her palm ready to strike-
“Lavi?!”
“Last I checked,” Lavi quipped, adjusting the strap of her own rucksack. “Didn’t think we’d be leaving until sunrise, but you’re the boss.”
“We?” Niva asked, eyes darting to and fro. This wasn’t part of the plan. She was supposed to head off on her own and let Lavi live her own life. She wasn’t prepared for any emotional goodbyes. “I was supposed to go without- er, I mean… wouldn’t you rather just stay here?”
“What, are you kidding?” Lavi laughed. “I got to see like half the world with my baby sister! Why would I want to stay here after doing that?!”
“I… I don’t know,” Niva said. “Maybe not stay here, per se, but… go your own way? Travel on your terms? Not… not be shackled with me the whole time?”
“Shackled? In what universe are you a shackle?” Lavi smiled, laying a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“The universe where you had to babysit me through my entire Avatar journey?” Niva said wryly.
A snort escaped Lavi. “Okay first of all-”
“Lavi, I’m serious!” Niva interjected, cutting across Lavi for perhaps the first time in her life. “I’ve been paying attention, you know. I see how much you thrive on your own. You’re amazing, you earn everyone’s respect right away, you charm literally every woman we come across. But you can’t do anything about it because you have to worry about me. You can’t live your own life because you’re so worried about me.” She took a breath, trying to calm herself before she got too emotional. Or too loud. Their parents were still sleeping after all. “I just… I can’t believe you wouldn’t rather do anything else but look after me. So I… I didn’t want to ask you to do it again.”
The mirth left Lavi immediately. She set her rucksack down along with her spear and warblade, and drew closer to her. “Nee… I took you on your travels and looked after you because I wanted to. And for no other reason.”
Niva stared at Lavi for a moment. As though she had just grown a second head. “Really?”
Lavi nodded.
“You don’t… you really don’t think I’m a burden?”
“Not in the slightest. It was so good seeing you grow and come out of your shell. I’d never been more proud of you in my life. I know you’re going to be an amazing Avatar,” Lavi said, her smile practically glowing with pride. “And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Niva barely made it a beat before she started crying.
Lavi gave a gentle smile as she collected Niva into her arms. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said soothingly.
“I’m sorry,” Niva sobbed into Lavi’s shoulder. “I thought… I thought I was bad for you.”
“Hey, you’re not the only one who grew on that journey,” Lavi whispered, her hand running circles over Niva’s back. “I learned just as much as you did.”
Niva sniffled, trying to take deep breaths to recompose herself. “I know. You’ve become incredible. I mean, you’ve always been incredible, but… you know what I mean.”
“If I hadn’t gone with you, I’d have joined the army,” Lavi said. “I’d have just been another cog in a machine. A machine that we’ve seen for ourselves doesn’t work. How many villages were left to rot before we came along? Taking you on your Avatar journey was the best decision I ever made.”
“Yeah. Any village that doesn’t produce a resource the military can use is left to the winds,” Niva said with a huff, venom seeping into the words. “I fully intend to do something about that.”
“We intend to do something about that,” Lavi said, pulling back and cupping Niva’s face. “Because we’re a team.”
A smile returned to Niva’s face. “...Thanks, Lavi,” she said. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was ready to go it alone, anyway. I just felt like I had to try, for both our sake.”
“Well I’d have been very sad if I woke up tomorrow and you were gone.”
“...Well now I can’t go it alone because you being sad would be all I could think about,” Niva cursed.
“Exactly!” Lavi pulled away from her sister and picked up her rucksack and weapons. “Shall we?”
“We shall,” Niva nodded, suddenly feeling a great deal better. This wasn’t at all what she spent all night planning on, but she now knew that it was better this way.
She and Lavi set off onto the road. Even when she was mastering airbending, Niva had never felt so light on her feet. She was going out to make something of herself. Do some good for people. And she’d always have Lavi at her side no matter what.
Niva vowed to make sure her sister would never be forgotten.