This Avatar is Fake?

Johnny Tran looked furiously at Jun who was smiling at him mockingly.

Jun had predicted Johnny Tran to confront them there before they could exit the premises. Thus, he had informed the event manager who had recruited him beforehand to conceal the red light of the camera and inform the police once he sees Johnny Tran confront them. He assured the event manager that they will have concrete evidence for their arrest and that he will be safe from the Tran crime Family afterwards.

"You..." Even if he says that he didn't use bloodbending on Jun, it wouldn't change the fact that he's still a bloodbender.

Chik.

Johnny couldn't help but seethe with anger as he was getting handcuffed by the swamp police. His hands and fingers were made to wear rock gloves out of rockbending so that he wouldn't be able to bend blood.

The swamp police, unlike the metalbending police force in Republic city, were composed of both waterbenders and earthbenders. Because of the Foggy swamp bordering the Earth Kingdom, Nong Ruen Roeng welcomed earthbenders into the city too.

"That was some earthbending there, friend. Or should we call you Big Boulder Haru?" The police said to Haru as the Tran crime family were being dragged away in the background.

"Hehe..." Haru scratched his cheek in embarrassment. He couldn't tell them that it wasn't him because it would be confusing and it would reveal Jun can bloodbend.

"You're still young. You could be great here at the task force." The police officer said.

"Ummm... thanks... but, I want to join the police in Republic city."

"Ohhh! If you can metalbend as good as you earthbend, then we'd envy them if they have you." The officer started walking back and waved to Haru and the rest. "Take care! If you ever change your mind, the offer still stands!"

Jun looked at the master and student talking to each other.

"Go with them."

"But master..."

"I won't be able to teach you anything more." Dat looked in Jun's direction. "And you've found someone better than me."

Jun tilted his head.

"What are you talking about?"

Dat smiled at him. "Please give guidance to my pupil, Silla."

"But we won't be here for long. I won't be able to-"

"Then take him with you. He'll get more experience outside of this town."

Jun furrowed his brows. Conflicted if he should also take Vinh like he took Haru. And the problem with him having to reveal his past.

But...

"Okay." He ultimately approved.

Jun was excited at the thought of cultivating someone as talented like Vinh. With him passing on his knowledge to Vinh, it would be interesting to see what he could become later on. His interest outweighed the risk of telling him his secret.

***

After saying goodbyes with Dat and collecting the prize money from the event, they were now deep in the Foggy Swamp, on the outskirts of the city of Nong Ruen Roeng.

"Where are we headed now?" Haru asked Jun who was sitting in front of him in the skiff.

Vinh was at the back of the skiff, moving it with his waterbending.

"And how do you plan on..." Haru whispered as he secretly pointed at Vinh.

Jun contemplated for a moment as he stared at Vinh.

Vinh caught him staring and tilted his head.

"Vinh..." Jun decided to tell him now. "I know your master said you should follow us, but I'll let you think for yourself before we go farther away from Nong Ruen Roeng. My plan os to travel the world and..."

As they travelled through the swamp in the direction that Jun had pointed at earlier, he told Vinh the truth up to how he met Haru and came to Nong Ruen Roeng and met him.

It was a very surprising story. Vinh didn't know for sure if they were lying, but his story didn't have any lapses and judging by Jun's character he couldn't have told a lie.

Especially after demonstrating his Avatar- like powers. He decided to believe in him even if it meant facing dangers that came with travelling and learning waterbending from Jun.

"Woah..." Vinh gasped in awe as Fire encircled the skiff they were on.

"So... should I call you Jun?"

Jun nodded in reply before looking ahead of them.

"We're here."

"This- !" Vinh immediately grasped where they were. It was the bottom of the... "Banyan-grove tree..." He uttered.

"Why are we here?" Haru asked.

"Didn't I tell you earlier that I was going to introduce you to someone I met the night before?"

"How..." Haru furrowed his brows. He didn't notice Jun ever going out and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to go unnoticed all night because it was quite a distance away from the city.

"You're here." A figure greeted them on top of the huge root of the Banyan-grove tree. It appeared to be an elderly woman.

Jun waterbended some vines in order to pull them up to where the elderly lady was.

"Even if the air nomad society is thriving now, it's still rare to meet another twinkletoes like you around here."

Haru and Vinh tilted their heads at the strange geriatric's word.

"Greetings..." Jun bowed his upper body in front of her. "...Lady Beifong."

"Oh please. I already told you it's just Toph."

As she mentioned her name, Haru and Vinh gasped.

Jun was famous and it had surprised them, but Toph Beifong was legendary.

Haru immediately kowtowed in front of her feet. "It's an honor to meet the progenitor of metalbending!"

Toph furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Jun. "Is this who you were talking about last night?" She said nonchalantly as she pointed at Haru.

Jun nodded as he chuckled.

"Kid..."

Haru lifted up his head.

"...get up."

"Yes, ma'am." Haru stood up straight and tensed up his body.

"Relax, will you?" Bang! Toph hit Haru's arm with her backfist.

"Ow..." Haru rubbed his arm. It wasn't the normal strength of someone who has lived a century.

"Listen. I heard from Jun that you want to learn metalbending. But to do that, you need to freshen up on your earthbending first. Luckily, you found a great master that had already corrected your weak foundation and had given you a good one."

Haru looked at Jun who was smiling at him brightly.

***

Thud!

"Ow!" Haru, blindfolded, rubbed his forehead. He had crashed into the wall.

They were currently inside where Toph had been residing in. Near the Banyan-grove tree.

"It's not enough to just practice this at night. While you're here, you'll be my gofer. You'll do everything blindfolded."

Thud! "Ow!" He banged his head again.

"I thought you said you've been doing this for a week!" Toph scolded Haru.

"I have! I get the general feel of things but I can't say that I can "see" yet!"

"Pft!" Vinh was sitting on the sofa with Jun and he was dying trying to hold in his laughter, covering his mouth with both hands.

Jun made a troubled smile.

"If you don't have anything better to do, then go train!" Toph shouted.

"We'll train tomorrow. We'll go ahead first and rest instead." Jun said as he looked at Vinh and gestured to him that they should go.

Toph "looked" at their backs as they left.

She recalled how she met Jun the other night.

She decided to reside in the Foggy swamp in her old age, and during that time, she reached spiritual enlightenment. Her seismic sense had reached heights that made her see any part of the world at any time as she pleases as if she was there herself.

As she was observing Nong Ruen Roeng remotely from her place, she saw someone who had caught her interest some time ago.

It was Jun. She first saw him through her clairvoyance when he was hiding in the woods quite a distance away from Republic City.

A man that wasn't the Avatar that had the powers of the Avatar.

She knew he wasn't the Avatar because she can also use her power to see the spirit world where Korra was at the moment.

As she observed Jun in Nong Ruen Roeng, a strange thing happened.

While he was on his bed with his eyes closed, Toph clearly heard his voice.

'Who are you?'

His spirit projected from his body as if he was getting up from his bed.

Astral Projection. It was one of the abilities one gains when reaching spiritual enlightenment.

'You... can sense me?' Toph asked.

'Yes. Now, tell me, who are you?'

'Toph.'

'Toph? Beifong?'

'Heh. I know it became a common name after the war, but who else do you think would be able to do this?'

'It's an honor, Lady Beifong.' Jun, in his spirit form, bowed.

'Just Toph is fine.'

'Do you always do this? Observing people?'

'You word it like I have some malicious intent. Haha. How else can I still travel the world in my old age? In fact, I already saw you before. Outside Republic City.'

'I see. At the moment, I can also do that but in a limited distance...' He closed his eyes for a moment. 'You're near the Banyan-grove tree.'

Toph was astonished. To meet someone at that young age to have already reached that level of spiritual enlightenment. Moreover, it was someone who had the powers of the Avatar. Jun told her it was synthetically infused into him, but she no longer believes in coincidences.

Just like how she met the badgermoles when she ran away and was able to learn earthbending.

Just like how she met Aang, she wouldn't have a reason to leave her home if she hadn't. Thus, she became the Avatar's eartbending teacher. She discovered metalbending. And she helped save the world.

Just like how Zuko was the one who found the Avatar and not anyone else when it has already been a hundred years since the Avatar had gone missing. How the banished prince's quest revealed to him that the true path to redemption was to aid the Avatar instead of being his enemy.

Just like how Aang ran away from home and was encased in ice for a century made him survive the Fire Nation attack. Although he still felt guilty about it, he knew he wouldn't have been able to stop that attack even if he was there. He would have been captured.

Just like how Katara and Sokka met Aang.

Just like how she met Korra when she was hurt and lost.

It was destiny.

It was his fate that he gained the powers of the Avatar while Korra was away.

That's why Toph decided to help Jun just as she helped Aang and Korra.

That's why she accepted Jun's request of teaching Haru.

Toph then looked at her student slowly sliding his foot on the ground and waving his hands in front of him.

"Haaa... It's gonna be a long week."

***

It has been almost a week since Haru started being taught by Toph.

If he wasn't practicing earthbending forms, he was doing chores, if he wasn't doing anything, he meditated. He did all of that while blindfolded.

Bang! "Ow!" Haru crashed into a wall again

"Kh!" He took his blindfold off and threw it om the ground out of frustration. "Haa...haaa..."

As he took heavy breaths, he sensed someone coming from behind him.

When he turned around, he saw Toph.

"You're frustrated." She said.

"You think?" Haru responded with sarcasm.

"Hahahaha" Toph laughed because Haru's frustration made him throw away his formality. "Why are you frustrated?"

Haru was a little annoyed at Toph's question as if she didn't already know why, but he decided to answer it nonetheless.

"I'm frustrated because I made so little progress. Just when I thought that I finally got it, I end up failing."

"So what? Progress is progress." Toph shrugged her shoulders.

Haru frowned at his teacher's unsatisfactory response. He then instinctively looked at where Vinh and Jun was.

Vinh was sitting in the water with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. Jun was at the side observing him.

Jun started teaching Vinh the day after they came here. He had instructed him to make the water move just by sitting in it.

On the first day, Vinh caused ripples around him without moving.

Swoossshhh! Swoosssshhh! Splash!

Now he formed waves around him crashing to each other.

"I see..." Toph noticed Haru's envy.

Haru tilted his head at her.

"You are impatient." She evaluated him.

Haru frowned. "How can you say that when I've been patiently doing everything you say. Some of the stuff you had me doing wasn't even important."

Toph had him sweeping the same area constantly. At first he thought he had missed something because he was blindfolded but wasn't the case. Moving stuff around her house constantly only to put it back again where it originally was.

"You're impatient because you keep comparing yourself to others."

Haru widened his eyes. It seems Toph had nailed it on the head.

"Let me be honest with you, kid." Toph drew near to him. "You're not talented."

Hearing those words from his respected teacher and idol felt like cold water was thrown on him.

"We all have the same potential to reach levels of success, but talent makes so much of a difference on how fast we get there."

She turned her head to where Vinh was as if she wasn't blind.

"I've met strong waterbenders in my days... but the way water reacts to him... hahahaha..." She started chuckling as she remembered the tickling sensation on her feet as she felt the water reacting inside the meters of thick wood of the roots of the Banyan-grove tree when they met. "He's a genius like me."

Haru looked down. His body grew heavy. "... what about Jun? Did the elements react strongly to him?"

"No..." Toph said.

Haru's eyes lit up. Like he finally found an oasis as he was lost in the desert.

"The elements didn't react because he has already assimilated to the environment. The elements recognize him as one of their own. His connection to everything is insane. If me and Vinh are geniuses, he's a bonafide monster! Hah!" Toph grinned.

Haru's oasis turned out to be a mirage. He felt like all hope was lost. The image of him being a police officer in Republic city was slowly fading.

"Hmmm..." Toph observed the sullen young man. "You see now what happens when you constantly compare yourself to others?"

There was no reponse from Haru.

Toph made a meaningful smile and drew closer. "Do you want to know the way to reach our level?" She said softly.

Haru looked at her as if pleading for the answer.

"Work harder..."

Haru's eyes widened.

"Work harder and stop comparing yourself to others. Compare yourself to the previous you as you get better. Don't lose your patience. Don't let others sway you. Let your heart be as firm as a rock!" Slap!

"Ah!" Haru reached for his back where he just got smacked.

Although he hadn't realized it, that smack along with those words, reinvigorated him. The light in his eyes had come back.

"What are you waiting for? Put on that blindfold and get to work!"

"Yes ma'am!" Haru ran off to his next task.

Toph was left there contemplating. That sermon made her recall something unpleasant.

She first encountered Jun when he was training his bending. She caught him rolling on the ground barenaked with a blindfold on.

At first she thought she had caught a pervert in the forest, but as she observed him more, she found out that he was training his sensitivity to the earth element.

It was a method that even Toph wouldn't have dared tried when she was learning earthbending. She wanted to ask how he reached the conclusion that he should do that, but she would die first before revealing to him that she had been observing him naked.

It's probably why Jun had already reached that level in his twenties.

Excluding the fact that Jun had told her he accumulated so much knowledge about famous benders in history like herself and the past Avatars and using that to his advantage when he was training, his methods were unheard of and ingenious.

Even the fact that he had told Haru to start blindfolding himself because of Toph and the badgermoles to train earthbending isn't something she would even suggest when she was teaching it.

That mentality of thinking outside the box reminded her of someone.

Toph widened her blind eyes and turned towards where Jun was.

"Could it be..." She muttered.

The following day...

Boom! Crack! Fwoosh!

A boulder flew through the air... Splash!

It crashed into the water.

"That was good. You had perfect form." Toph said.

"I did it!" Haru raised his hands and faced Toph and the rest who were watching.

Even though he was blindfolded, he perfectly knew where they were.

They smiled at Haru as he was jumping up and down and shadow boxed.

"I can't wait to learn metalbending." He said.

"I'm sure you do..." Toph said with a meaningful smile. "... unfortunately, I won't be there to see it."

Haru removed his blindfold and revealed his furrowed brows. "What do you mean?"

"We can't stay here anymore, Haru." Jun was the one to answer. "The one's that are after me are on their way here."

"You sensed them too, huh?" Toph closed her eyes.

"But- !" Haru looked at his master. "What about Toph?"

"I'm not who they're after. Plus, this old broad ain't easy, kid!" She boldly declared as she pointed her thumb at herself.

Haru looked at Toph. She's clearly formidable, but he couldn't help but look at her like a frail old woman.

"Let's get ready to leave." Jun said.

***

Haru had his bag on and looked at the skiff in front of them.

"Where are we going now?"

"..." Jun hadn't really thought of a clear route when he decided that he wanted to travel the world. He only had a mental list of places he wanted to visit but he wanted it to feel spontaneous and let his feet take him wherever. Like a real adventure.

"Go to Ba Sing Se." Toph said. "Someone's waiting for you there."

Jun tilted his head at her.

"Your friend is waiting for you there."

Jun widened his eyes at Toph's words.

Shang was dead. Yui wouldn't be able to leave because of her family.

There's only one person who it could be.

"Samaya..." Jun thought for a bit before nodding his head at Toph. "Thank you for everything." He bowed one last time for her.

Vinh bowed as well and followed Jun onto the skiff.

"Master..." Haru uttered her name with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Oh, stop it with the water works." Toph turned her head away. "You're an earthbender, not a waterbender."

"Thank you..." Haru bowed his head. His tears patted on the ground. "... for everything."

"Haaa..." Toph patted his lowered head as she sighed. "... you remind me of my husband."

Haru lifted his head up and bit his lip as he looked at his master that he's grown attached to once more.

"Remember the feeling when you finally learned seismic sense. Continue your training and deepen your connection with the earth element. Only then can you learn it's sub-elements."

Toph stomped her feet and a piece of rock floated up.

The rock soon turned red. Smoke started to rise from it as it crumbled and turned more fluid.

Haru widened his eyes. "You can- !"

"I can lava bend, yes." Toph smirked.

Toph was famously known for discovering metalbending, she's known to bend sand too, but being able to lava bend was news.

The lava floating in the air started to spin rapidly and turned into a shuriken.

"Hup!" Toph threw it away.

Zoom! It flew off towards Jun's head.

Jun, on the skiff, widened his stance and moved his hands rapidly, slowing down the lava that was headed towards him until it safely spun in his hands.

Splash! Tssss! He threw it on the water.

"He can bend lava too." Toph coolly said like she had known for a long time but a drop of sweat formed on her temple. 'I just tested it, but he CAN bend lava.' She thought to herself.

Haru's and Vinh's mouth was agape.

Haru slapped himself with both of his hands. His goal is now beyond being a police office in Republic city.

He looked at Toph with renewed determination in his eyes.

"Here." Toph removed her headband and gave it to him. The band, swaying in the wind was grabbed by Haru. He put it on across his forehead, tying it behind, and nodded before going to the skiff.

When they were quite a distance away, Toph finally headed back to her residence.

Grinning like she has always done her whole life. Excited of what's to come next.

A week ago, even before the people that were chasing Jun came, she knew she would have to say goodbye today one way or another.

As she sat down, recalling the adventures and misadventures of her life, she smiled.

The vines started to creep towards her. Earth spirits that were there before Jun and company had arrived, gathered around her.

As the vines coiled and wrapped around her and the chair she was sitting on, she leaned her head on the wall.

"See you soon, twinkletoes." She muttered with her last breath.

***

Jun's head snapped up and turned towards the direction they came from.

"What is it, Jun?" Vinh was the one to ask.

Jun glanced at Haru who was deep in thought with a determined look.

Jun waved his hands at Vinh and made a meaningful smile. "It's nothing..."

Vinh tilted his head at him before shrugging and continued moving the skiff.

***

"What is this?"

The people that were chasing Jun, Zhong's men, had just entered Toph's residence.

They scanned the walls and the floor that are now lined with vines.

"Tenka, look at this." One of them tilted his head over towards where the vines appeared to be heading.

There was an old lady that seemed to be sleeping while her body was covered with vines.

All of them examined her.

Tenka, the only female in the group of ten people, drew closer.

Conjuring up a flame in her hand with firebending to light up the old woman. The firebending sleeves she was wearing was noticeable.

All of them wore one and are now called pseudo firebenders.

"She appears to be dead." She said as she examined the body more.

Then, something reflected the light from her flame. It was on the body's wrist. Tenka widened her eyes.

"Beifong..." she muttered.