The Siege of Ba Sing Se

Chapter 1 - Nightmares

"What are you doing here?! You need to leave! You need to find your brother! Warn the other Temples before it's too late!"

"I can't leave you Chengyu,"

"Take Gershwin and go!"

~(8)~

Her eyes snapped open as she jumped from her bed. She eased her ragged breathing. It was just another nightmare. Why did she keep watching those things? People running around trying to save the people they loved and their lives. It just didn't make sense. She couldn't recognize any of them.

Kya was a scientist. If something, didn't follow the laws of scientific physics, it was wrong.

She wrapped her glasses from the bed table beside her and she took a look at the clock. It was 3 a.m. She took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes and resting her head at the palm of her hands. She needed to try and sleep. There was work to do the next morning and the week had just begun. Maybe a cool glass of water would be fine to ease her nerves.

She woke up, made her way to the kitchen and opened one of the shelves taking one glass. She filled it with water and she sat on the wooden table that stood between all the shelves. It always used to serve as a bench for her chefs, but when the night fell, she was always alone in that huge... lonely house, isolated from the rest of Republic City's population.

This house was huge. She barely ever stayed for long in her house if you consider the fact that she spent ten hours of her day in a lab experimenting with many other scientists for new inventions. Her life was practically a screwdriver and tons of money.

It didn't sound bad. She always liked her job. That's why she graduated Mechanical Engineering in Ba Sing Se University. She had struggled so much to establish that company. The Hertinforg Industries were her entire life.

Thinking all these things, she had almost reached the bottom of the glass though there was still some water in it. She didn't feel like drinking more. As she woke up from the chair, she accidentally pushed the glass from the edge of the table and it started falling towards the floor. Her eyes widened and she instinctively raised her hand as if she was trying to prevent it from crashing on the floor without touching it.

The glass did crash on the floor. But the water stayed in the air. For one mere second, she believed that she was actually water-bending. Her eyes widened and her hand started shaking. She immediately pushed her hand back and the water fell on the floor as well.

No, no, no, no... this isn't right... there is no bending... no bending at all. She thought as she started cleaning up the mess of glasses and the spilled water.

Her father had always been obsessed, reading her stories every night about Avatar Aang's and his sister's adventures. Korra's and Karel's adventures. But she always knew... there are no benders. Benders had disappeared two hundred years ago.

The Avatar Cycle and benders and Defenders never existed. It was just a tale made from someone's mind when they were in need of fame and acknowledgment. People did not need a protector, people needed to evolve. That's all. She helped them evolve. She built the first weapons, the first computers, the first useful devices that changed the world.

And no Avatar helped her achieve all those things. No bending. It was science. Just science and hard work.

But what about the water? How the hell did she manage to keep it in the air?!

She rubbed her eyes again taking her glasses off. Maybe her mind was playing tricks with her. Maybe she had to change glasses or even have her eyes checked. But that wasn't bending. That's all she at least she tried to convince herself.