When The World Needed Him Most

1

Tommy loved the feeling of the wind in his hair, under his glider, letting him fly up into the clouds. Up here he had no worries. No responsibility. No chance to disappoint his father with bending non-air elements.

He had grown up on stories of his past lives. Avatar Roku, Avatar Aang, Avatar Korra. All his predecessors that the word now thinks are gone. They think that he is gone.

But thousands of years have passed. Years ago, the last Harmonic Divergence happened and the spirits went back to their world. And its said they took the Avatar with them. Life moved on without the spiritual power, and it all but faded into myth.

Tommy scoffed. He wished. Once his father found out he was the Avatar, he whisked him away from Air Temple Island and brought him to the Southern Air Temple. Over the past years, they'd worked on rebuilding their history, restoring as much as they could of the upsidedown ruins. It wasn't much.

"Tommy! Breakfast!"

But it was home.

The boy smiled as he flew down to the ledge, turning his glider back into a staff as he landed.

"Enjoying your morning flight?" His father, Phil, asked.

Tommy nodded, taking the bowl of porridge, "yeah. It feels freeing."

"We're air nomads." Phil smiled softly, "it's in our nature to flow with the wind."

Tommy bit his tongue. He was an air nomad, but he was also the Avatar, and that nature was to be all natures. Usually Avatar's would start their training at sixteen. Now he was nearing eighteen, almost two years late into mastering the elements. But whenever he asked his dad, he brushed it off, telling him there's no need for the Avatar anymore.

But something in Tommy knew. Something knew bad things were coming, and the Avatar would be needed once again. He had tried connecting to his past lives, but no one showed up.

"I know what you're thinking." Phil said.

"And what's that?" Tommy snarked back.

"That you want to master more elements." Phil took a bite of his food.

Tommy sighed, "I'm the Avatar. I'm supposed to master all four elements."

"All you are supposed to be is yourself." Phil told him.

And what is I want myself to be that Avatar, what then? Tommy wanted to ask. But a low rumbling broke Tommy from his thoughts. He set his bowl down, "What's that?"

"I'm not sure." Phil set his own bowl down.

The rumbling stopped. For a moment, everything was silent.

"Get ready to fly." Phil whispered.

Tommy nodded, gripping his staff tighter.

Then walls of earth slammed down. Earthbenders skiied down the sheer faces, launching rocks at the air nomads.

Tommy and Phil shot out into the sky. They circled high above their cliff face home, and too their horror saw what had become of it.

An earth kingdom army has descended apon their safe place. They destroyed it from its ancient roots. Tommy could only watch as an entire section of the temple groaned and creaked, eventually falling off I to the abyss of the canyon.

"Tommy! TOMMY!" Phil called to him, "Tom! We need to get to Air Temple Island!"

"But our home-!" Tommy cried.

"It's gone Tommy!” Phil said, tears rolling down his cheeks, "We have no choice..."

Tommy took a shuddering breath, "but you said we could never go back, you said-"

"I know what I said!" Phil shouted, his knuckles turning white on his glider, "and I can only ask forgiveness of my fellow air nomads. But it's the safest place where we can go, no one would expect us back there. Just, whatever you do, do not let them know you're the Avatar. Understand?"

Tommy nodded. A whistling sound came from his right. The boy turned just in time to see a boulder hurtling towards him.

"Tommy!" Phil shouted, bending the air around him.

Tommy was flung away, but Phil remained in the boulders path. It crashed into the elder benders glider, sending him spiraling downward.

"DAD!" Tommy screamed.

"The Temple!" Phil yelled as he fell, "I'll meet you there! I promise!"

"Dad!" Tommy sobbed.

But he had no chance to grieve. More rocks were thrown his way. Too many to counter with air bending alone. So when a boulder came flying at him too fast to counter, he shattered it.

All at once the fighting stopped. Tommy could feel the hundreds of eyes staring at him. He was a secret no longer. Now the world knew...

The Avatar was back.

Tommy wheeled around on his glider, flying as far and as fast as he could. His heart was hammering in his chest. How could so many things go wrong so fast? And now he has to travel to Republic City, almost halfway across the world, without even a sky bison or a dragon!

But Tommy kept going. Even as night fell, and his stomach growled. Even as it got colder and snow started to fall. Tommy kept going.

Eventually, he spotted land in the distance, glowing a cold white in the moonlight. Finally, a place to land for the night and sleep. Tommy almost fell as he landed in the snow. But he shrugged it off, trudging over to a cliff face. He quickly used his air bending to push the snow into some semblance of a shelter and promptly collapsed into it. It was cold and uncomfortable, but Tommy was too exhausted to care and quickly fell asleep.