#(and then a multi-chap from robin's pov about meeting steve and fleeing the fire nation

[eskawrites]

i’m sure this has been done before but. the last airbender AU where El is, of course, the avatar, and the rest of the party are benders/other friends she meets as she masters the four elements

El as one of many bending children who were taken as part of a military experiment led by Brenner, a corrupted guru following xyz bad motivation. You get the idea.

She doesn’t remember the air temple where she was born, or any of her family. But she meets Kali, who also survived and escaped the experiments, somewhere along the way (my first thought for Kali is firebender based on personality, but also hear me out: waterbender who teaches herself bloodbending as she’s trying to get revenge on the people involved in the experiments)

plot? idk a plot. but imagine Vecna as a corrupted, mutated spirit of some kind. one of Brenner’s experiments with bending and energy and the spirit world gone too far. and he’s corrupting both the spirit world and the physical world wherever he goes

cue strange things happening, like people disappearing or being murdered by spirits. and also strange things like a small airbender girl showing up outside a water tribe village with very little recollection of who she is or how she got there

she meets Mike, who’s clumsily teaching himself waterbending, and Nancy, who has shouldered the responsibility of protecting their home after most of the adults in town prove themselves useless

something-something their journey takes them across the world. Dustin, a non-bending tinkerer who grew up with Mike goes with them. they also meet Lucas, a young earthbender doing his best to prove himself a warrior to his village. he hits it off with the kids immediately and decides to adventure with them

deeper in the Earth Kingdom, they hear rumor of someone who actually survived Vecna’s curse, and they follow those rumors straight to Max, a blind earthbending master who, when El asks, promises to teach her everything she knows

they visit El’s air temple once, only to find it deserted--except for a small boy named Will, who maybe disappeared from Mike and Nancy’s village years ago, and who somehow not only survived on his own all this time, but is suddenly an airbender, and is harboring a strange, unnerving connection to Vecna and his spirits

anyway enough nonsense let’s get to Robin, a firebender who ran away from her ruthless military family and is now living in exile, constantly looking over her shoulder in case the fire nation comes looking for her

i’m thinking the fire nation fulfilling the role of the Russians--they didn’t start the experiments, and they aren’t as big a threat as Vecna, but they’re watching what’s going on with the spirit world and are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of the chaos and harness Vecna’s power

Robin was just working her boring old job as a guard to some important fire noble’s annoying son (yes it’s Steve) when she discovered the fire nation’s involvement in Some Bad Shit. she and Steve decide to try to put a stop to it, and when that fails they flee the country

they stumble across the party eventually. some of the kids don’t trust them at first, but Steve saves Dustin’s life in some sort of battle and Dustin practically worships him after that. not to mention the fact that all of them secretly think Robin’s sharp wit and ‘i don’t give a fuck’ attitude makes her cool af

she teaches El firebending, and El and Max follow her around like puppies, always talking about how much of a badass she is

Nancy isn’t jealous, not at all, what are you talking about

Nancy doesn’t trust Steve and Robin for a long time, longer than any of the kids. she knows they’re hiding something, and maybe something-something she has a bad history with fire nation soldiers, so Robin rubs her the wrong way

they fall in love eventually. Max points out that Nancy’s heart beats faster any time she and Robin get all snarky with each other and Nancy loses it

Robin and Steve’s past does come back to bite them, and Robin is sure their new friends are going to abandon them, and any progress she’s made with Nancy will vanish. instead, Nancy is the first one to step in front of her and tell the threat to back off. if Robin wasn’t already in love (she was), she would’ve fallen for her right then and there