Avatar; The legacy Of Genji

Jian Mao

They told him his birthday was special, that he was one of the few people born November 8th. Jian used to hate his birthday. Every time he would walk out of Gao Ling on his birthday, and see black drapes hanging out of windows. It was silent, and incense sticks would line the streets with pictures of Korra. Jian was forgotten, unimportant. That was until a man stepped forward and gave Jian a lotus tile. He told him that he was the new avatar. Jian was the happiest five year old out there.

His first thought was that he was a super hero. After the announcement had been made, there were suddenly pictures of him everywhere. Radio stations wanted to talk to him, Firelord Iroh II wanted to invite him to eat at the palace, he got to ride sky bison, he was the happiest kid. And then he turned eleven.

Jian had done it, he mastered earth bending. He could sand, metal, and lava bend. He got private lessons from Bo Lin and Wei, and become one of youngest earth bending masters. He was excited to move onto fire, he already had many friends in the fire nation. But Jian had been eleven then, and he wasn't as naive as he was at age seven. He knew he wasn't the avatar.

For a while Jian thought one day he would master the avatar state. One day he'd be able to bend four elements, that he was just a stalled avatar, but he knew better. One day he'd been picked up from set( not the Mao family show, which Mr Varrick directed, a mover set where he had a small role) by a man with a lotus symbol on his vest.

He said he had known him in his two past lives, he said he had even been his son in a past life. But Jian told him that wasn't true. Jian trusted him like he trusted anyone else in white lotus, and he told him that he wasn't the avatar. The old man simply smiled saying he knew. He introduced himself as Bumi.

"It's hard when you can't bend an element that the whole world is waiting for you to bend." Bumi grunted.

Jian felt even worse. He would've been happier if Bumi told him they had made a mistake, but to know they were lying to him? His whole life? Jian almost felt like he had been made a mockery of. For so long he truly believed he was the avatar. Looking back Jian should've seen how every battle he had to fight, he fought earth bending, or the white lotus would step in.

    Now that he  had thought about it, at every fight the white Lotus was there to help him take down the bad guys, like they knew he couldn't do it alone. All the sudden Jian had so many questions, like were these fights staged? He felt like a puppet, a sad excuse for a hero.

Bumi sighed clapping a hand on his back.

"Look kid I know this must be tough to hear, but you weren't dealt the worst cards. You're rich, and famous, and beloved. You're an icon!"

"I'm a fool." He snapped.

"You're a hero." Bumi corrected

"Fake or not, you're our avatar, and as long as the world knows that, we're safe. The world is changing at unnatural pace, I remember when radios were the biggest invention we had seen. But you my friend, are familiar. A constant, a reassurance to people. The world needs their avatar, and that's you."

Jian rubbed his temples.

"So what, I have to be the avatar forever? I have to live a lie for the rest of my life?"

That was a question Jian would soon know the answer to. For the next six years Jian would "master" the elements. Production teams would film his stunts. Artist would model him after avatar Aang and print pictures of him in the avatar state. He'd do more interviews, host more events. He'd be the avatar the world needed him to be. His future was planned out to the detail and there was no more surprises.