#bender au

the general premise is as follows:

The air benders (or the Jedi, in this case) were wiped out by the Emprie (Fire Benders, duh. Lightning and all that). The Empire is hell-bent on eradicating and/or (heh) subjugating all Bending elementals that are not Fire Benders in order to control the universe. They have nearly eradicated all Water Benders and now and have turned their sights on Earth Benders, the most populous and most able and willing to stand up to their oppression.

Cassian is a Water Bender. I would use his Fest backstory for this one, as I think it works better, seeing as though Fest is an ice planet and all, like in the show. But Fest has been all but destroyed and its Benders routed. He is essentially Katara in this story, the last Water Bender of his homeworld. (someday i will write something about why Cassian always gets put in the female character's role in my AUs. some day.), but obviously there's huge differences. He has to keep his water bending secret, of course. He is a healer, and a blood bender. He is laying low (trying to) in Courscant, working as a bartender/short order cook during the day, and operating an underground railroad of sorts for Benders on the run during the night while also taking care of his sick sister (Kerri, in this case-- I can blend canons, this is fanfic).

Jyn is a ward/hostage of the Empire, used to keep Galen Erso in line while he finishes the designs for their ultimate weapon: a mechanism that can take Bending abilities away. Jyn is a pretty accomplished Fire Bender, but she is also hiding a bit of a secret-- she's an Avatar, a Bending Elemental that hasn't been seen in centuries. She knows this because Lyra told her, just before she died, and pleaded with her to hide her abilities for the good of her own survival. She's pretty successful in this, until Krennic, her "guardian" tells her she is to marry one of his cronies. She understandably freaks the fuck out, refuses and argues, and Krennic hits her for her 'insolence'. Jyn returns the favor with a shove that is definitely assisted with a burst of wind. Krennic is knocked out, thankfully, because Jyn has to GTFO and she does just that. She manages to escape into the seedy bowels of Courscant, but not before getting fucking shot right before she escapes Krennic's compund. She's pretty badly wounded. Delerious and driftless, she ends up staggering into Cassian's shitty little bar.

Hilarity ensues.

there's more to that obviously, because they have to team up with the RO crew and all that, take down the Empire etc etc but that's the general gist of it. i've had a LOT of fun with the world building for this one.

here's a snippet!

===

Cassian looks up sharply from his bookkeeping— there’s a considerable racket coming from the front door. A disheveled human woman is standing at the threshold of the entrance, clutching her left arm. The little bell above the door is still ringing, the door still swaying on it’s hinges, from the force of her arrival. Her eyes are wide and terrified, he realizes with some alarm. He pushes himself upright from his perch on the backbar.

“Uh, can I help you, ma’am?” he asks.

The woman looks at him like she’s not quite sure he’s real. She squints, tilts her head. She is pale, panting, has the air of prey. Cassian tenses, hands curling into fists at his sides. This woman is most certainly trouble.

His unwanted guest staggers forward a step. Another. And then collapses onto the dirty floor.

===

I'm also caught up on bleach tybw English dub too! Hate the cliffhangers. 😀

Don't ask me about the story plot of this au, I'm not that good with coming up with story ideas. I just kind of went along with the atla plot line (also cause I want to see Orihime go into rage avatar mode🤣🤣)

Though, in all honesty, it would make more sense for Ichigo to be the avatar because well he's the main character and also because he's part hollow, soul reaper, quincy, and Hooman.

But I wanted to focus on Orihime, so yeah...

(Excuse my grammar)

As you had sunk your rounded nails into the marble wall you had hid behind, your smile had grown wider when you had seen the eldest boy clinging onto the second eldest in line, their clumsy hug resembling a choking hold more than an actual hug. They had been so adorable, even when the fire bender had pushed himself on two feet and no one had paid attention to his poor attempts at taking his first steps that by the way, he had failed miserably. Luckily, his appointed nursemaid had been quick to pick him up and rock him back and forth when he had started to cry.

‘What are you doing here? You should be by queen Eunha’s side in case she needs you,’ a deep voice had addressed you and your shoulders had gotten more tense on instinct as you had turned around and casted your eyes down.

‘I…’ you had started, or would have done so if your words hadn’t failed you. But the thing had been that you had been aware that you hadn’t been supposed to be outside and when one knew that they were breaking the rules, it was hard for them to come up with excuses. Or so it had been for you when Eternally had been still a land of undisturbed peace. ‘I was just… looking for them,’ you had blurted out a complete nonsense which the royal guard had picked up on pretty quickly. Yet, even though he had raised one of his brows at you in a sceptical manner, he hadn’t called you out on your painfully obvious lie. Instead, he had tilted his head sideways and motioned at the inside of the palace with both of his hands.

‘Well, they are here. Now, go!’ he had asked you and you had gulped when his authoritative voice had reached your ears.

‘Understood,’ you had managed before you had turned your back on the giggling children and had walked back to the palace with the guard sticking by your side.

That had been the last time you had seen them together, too. And after the siege of Chi and his ruthless men, the news of their disappearance and their possible death, for decades, you had been certain that you would have never had the chance to catch a glimpse of them again. Little had you known how utterly wrong you had been and that one day, you would be the one who needed to bring them back home from another dimension.

You woke up for quiet and not so quiet whispers, something firm but comfortable under your spine and a flower scented cloth thrown over your body. And while these details made you unbearably curious, you forced yourself to keep your eyes closed and your ragged breathing as peaceful as possible since it was a golden opportunity for you to get to know these people a bit better. After all, you had indeed wished for death right before the portal had opened in front of your eyes and had brought you to this boy with the ocean blue locks. He could have been just as much one of the lost benders on Earth as your enemy.

‘Are you sure you saw it right? Like, are you a hundred percent sure that what you saw was a magical portal, hyung?’ One of the boys asked and you balled your fist when the realization hit you that you understood each one of the words he spoke. Didn’t it mean that you were still in Eternally? Didn’t it mean that you were in enemy territory? It should have done so and yet, something in the way he talked made you think otherwise. Because by then, you and princess Sowon were too familiar with Chi’s men and their attitude to believe that he was on his side. But then who could he have been?

‘Why are you doubting me so much when I was right last time, too? I told you that the river was acting strange when I was around it and it turned out that we have magic powers,’ another boy remarked and you didn’t have to open your eyes to assume that he crossed his arms in front of his chest, sulky. His tone was too high-pitched and maybe pouty as well to not be at least a tad bit honestly offended. ‘Come on Soobin! I’m telling you, it had to be a portal. How else could she be here in that,’ the same boy tried to reason and it made you wonder what exactly that “that” could have referred to. Did you look funny?

‘Maybe, she’s from the countryside,’ the previous guy with the soothing aura, Soobin as you reminded yourself, was desperate to come up with a less unbelievable scenario, but his reply did nothing but coaxed a snort out of the other.

‘From the previous century?’ He asked back without thinking too much into it and you had to admit that their dynamics were amusing. You didn’t have to dwell on it much to come to the conclusion that they knew one another for a long while. But whether they were just friends or comrades, too, well… that you still couldn’t have decided.

‘Her clothes aren’t traditional Korean,’ Soobin pointed out, which rendered his sulky friend speechless and would have most probably done the same to you, too, if you hadn’t been pretending to be asleep. Because from one moment to another it became clear that you were not in your country anymore. Because despite the knowledge you had proudly picked up on the street in the past decades, you had no idea what they could have meant by Korean. Could they have been Korean? Was that a nation on Earth, the one you had been looking for, or you had ended up in a completely different dimension? You were dying to put your hands on the answers.

As you were listening to their conversation about your identity, your heart beat faster than it usually did and a thin layer of sweat formed on your palms. The cogs in your head also span furiously since if you had been in another dimension shouldn’t have that supposed to mean that these people weren’t familiar with your language? How was it even real that you knew exactly what they were talking about? They were so tiny when they had been brought to this land and if what the old man had said to you was true, they had spent the past two decades on Earth all by themselves. So how? How was all this possible?

‘Look, her necklace glows when it’s near me. Maybe, it has something to do with our powers. Aren’t you curious?’ The sulky boy asked and processing his confident claim, you finally put yet another puzzle piece to the big picture. He was the one whom you had bumped into first thing you had travelled through the portal they had already mentioned several times. And you wanted to punch yourself in the face for not realizing it sooner as the boy with the ocean blue locks was supposed to be the only person who had seen you set foot on Earth.

Your nails dug into your palm more firmly when you noticed the unmistakable sound of his footsteps. And it took everything in your power to not brush his hand off of you immediately when he took the necklace from you. You should have protected it from everyone and yet, the fact that it glowed in his closeness forced you into submission.

‘Come on, Soobin…’

Your eyes widened in surprise at his next words.

‘Wait!’ You yelped and grabbed the first part of him that you could reach: his cotton tee that you accidentally pulled out of his pants.

The boy’s lips parted in bewilderment and you gulped, breathless, before you tore your gaze away from his face and used his surprise against him. On wobbly legs, you leaned forwards and stole the magical jewelry back from him, not realizing how much of your body weight you shifted on him unintentionally until his fingers dug into your flesh to support you more.

You pulled away and cleared your throat to make the unwanted tension disappear.

‘Speak again!’ you asked him, staring at the glowing medallion in your possession instead of him or his friend, Soobin. You had a theory and you needed to test it so that your mind could rest. ‘What did you…’ 

Unbeknownst to you, the two boys exchanged a wary glance before the one standing closer to you shrugged and turned towards you with his entire body.

‘I said, come on, Soobin. Are you…’

You furrowed your brows when his sentence suddenly made perfect sense again and cut him off with another question as you tried your best to figure out what was going on.

‘Do you understand what I just said?’ you inquired a bit doubtful by nature, although it was obvious that he was telling the truth. Otherwise he couldn’t have answered your question so fast without any trouble. As though you were speaking his mother tongue.

‘Yes. Why wouldn’t I?’ he asked back, clearly confused, and while it was a weak shot, you told yourself that it must have done something with their powers. Because at the end of the day, you were just another clueless being who could only dream to understand magic. Your brain looked for logical connections where there might haven’t been any. Since the unknown unnerved you and how else could they have been able to perform the same unexplainable miracle on their own that you did with the help of the jewelry in your hand? You could have lived with this explanation. With the assumption that maybe, just maybe, benders existed for a greater good and that they were meant to be for the whole world and not just for a nation as it was the norm in your home. 

You shook your head to clear it a little, but may it have been due to the aftereffects of your travel or because of how long you have been laying atop of the wooden bench in that small room you were currently at, you almost lost your balance after the sudden movement. If the blue haired boy hadn’t reached out for your elbow last minute again, just like he had done in the alley, you would have definitely fallen head first onto the floor.

‘Hey, easy. You just woke up. It’s only natural that your body needs a few minutes, hm?’ He said gently and stroked your wrist with his thumb once, twice and three times before he came to his senses and helped you take a seat on the bench right behind you. You were too shocked and at loss of words to murmur at least a polite thank you under your nose in return.

‘I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but…’ Soobin broke the uncomfortable silence with an unsure interruption which sounded more like an apology than anything rude so when you slid your gaze at his figure, there was no annoyance or malice in your eyes. You found him rather lovely when he let his hand fall back by his side from his nape. Not that you would have ever said that out loud, especially because you still couldn’t have been a hundred percent sure that they were who you thought they were. You had to see their powers in action with your own two eyes. ‘Could you tell us who you are?’

‘And what did you mean when you asked for my help?’ The blue haired boy butted on in, not wasting a moment more to get his answers, too, although a part of you honestly doubted that his friend appreciated his eagerness. Nonetheless, they both had pretty good questions for which you weren’t sure whether you should have answered so carelessly.

Taking a breath, you observed their features with great care: the fine line of their eyebrows, the lack of wrinkles on their forehead and their slightly parted or clenched lips. You wanted to predict their reaction to everything you were about to say the most accordingly so that they wouldn’t have thrown you out of this place or outright turned on you due to a few wrongly phrased words. Meanwhile, you held onto the necklace a bit firmer without realizing, trying real hard not to think of the old man and your princess. She had wanted you to turn your back on them and run. She had had faith in you when she had given you this mission. You couldn’t have afforded to have a weak heart when the future of your nation depended on your success. So you brushed aside your last memories of them and steeled yourself as your role demanded you to.

‘It depends. Are you the benders I’m looking for?’ You asked without batting an eyelid, your gaze not leaving Soobin’s dark orbs. Because based on the boys’ previous conversation, you were almost ninety-nine percent certain that his word would be the final one, no matter how excited the blue haired guy was due to your arrival. Not to mention that he didn’t seem like someone who would have needed too much convincing to join your cause if they had indeed ended up being not just the ones you were searching for, but willing to give you a few pairs of helping hands as well. It was definitely Soobin you needed to win over to your side.

However, your staring contest became rather short-lived and unfruitful when all three of you snapped your head in the opening door’s direction. You narrowed your eyes upon seeing the newcomers and took a tentative step backwards which didn’t go unnoticed by the blue haired boy. And honestly, you weren’t sure whether you were grateful for his attentiveness or rather annoyed by it. It obviously depended on his answer for your previous inquiry since you couldn’t have afforded to be indebted to another nation’s soldier. This idea alone sent a chill down your spine.

One of the newcomers, the boy whose hair colour reminded you of the unforgiving flames of fire, raised a brow in a doubtful fashion while his gaze slid from your eyes through your dirty clothes to your bare feet. 

‘Who is she?’ He asked which made your fingers clench around the medallion more firmly as though he could have jumped on you to take it away from you at any given moment. But you couldn’t have possibly been unconscious long enough for these guys to contact each other via letter, right? They weren’t supposed to know about the magical object in your possession, you tried to calm your stupidly racing heart.

‘What are benders exactly?’ The blue haired boy turned in your direction instead of giving an answer to his acquaintance and under different circumstances, you might have found the redhead’s eye roll amusing, but now the only thing you felt when you caught sight of it was gratitude due to your saviour’s attempt to channel the sceptical newcomer’s annoyance from you to himself. 

Hence, you were just about to explain to him and the rest of the boys the basics - something that had been once taught in elementary school to children in your home - when another guy from the new group let out a small chuckle.

‘Oh, hyung, but that’s easy. People who can control certain elements like in that cartoon… wait a moment!’ He snapped his head in your way after he swallowed back the second part of his explanation, realization suddenly rushing through him, his eyes falling on you in shock. But for the first time since you had arrived to this place, whatever that meant, your smile was genuine and wide when you locked eyes with the stranger. You might have had no idea what a cartoon was, but you were glad that at least one of these five people seemed to know what you were talking about. Finally! 

‘Are you a bender?’ You asked automatically and maybe a tad bit eagerly when you took a step towards him, making his eyes grow wide. Briefly, you wondered whether you came off as a little intimidating, but luckily, despite his surprise, he didn’t get rid of his friendly smile which encouraged you to put your faith in him. Because by then even your stubborn and doubtful self realized that you wouldn’t have had a chance to run for it if these people had indeed planned to capture, torture or rob you. You were already locked up in a shamelessly small room with them for heavens.

When the boy opened his mouth for an answer, you could almost feel the necklace in your hand warming up, but then the redhead lifted his hand in front of your hope’s face and made him bite back his tongue with a single grunt of his. You gulped when the harsh sound reached your ears, but held his gaze due to your newfound confidence. If the friendly guy behind him really had the answers you needed, a grumpy redhead wouldn’t stand in your way without you putting up a fight.

‘I asked you a question first,’ he reminded you and you gulped, paying close attention to your body language before it could have given your anxiety away. So what if his gaze was piercing and his whole face reflected massive displeasure? You had definitely seen worse. After all, you had been captured by Chi’s men not even a day ago and those soldiers were merciless.

‘Well, technically it was Soobin who asked her first, but yeah,’ the blue haired guy chirped in almost innocently, but no matter how much you wanted to steal a glance at his face to know just how serious he was with his comment, you didn’t take your eyes off the redhead. It would have been a fatal mistake as this whole situation felt as if you had been in the middle of a circle of wolves. You had to teach him that he shouldn’t have taken you lightly and that he wasn’t your king to order you around. The only person you owed your unconditional loyalty, obedience and life to was princess Sowon. She was your empress. ‘Who are you?’ He asked from behind your back and you took a bigger breath before you would have shown the smallest willingness to give him an honest answer. Someone had to take the initiative if you didn’t wish to beat around the bush for long hours if not for days. No, you couldn’t have done that, no matter how convenient it would have been if the boys had reassured you about their identity first. Sometimes some things just couldn’t go the way one wanted. And then, it was up to you whether you accepted your temporary defeat or made it a lot worse with your thick skull. At least this was what you had heard from Queen Eunha whenever she had reminded her husband that as a king, his options hadn’t always been as limited as they had seemed at first sight.

So you brushed aside your pride and closed your eyes momentarily. Then, you took another deep breath and turned towards the blue haired boy with your entire body.

‘I’m a royal servant from Eternally. Your turn,’ you told him and you would have lied if you had said that his wide smile didn’t take you aback. You had no idea why he was so happy all of a sudden. Did he even know what kind of place Eternally was nowadays? That people got more and more miserable day by day since Chi had taken the throne by force?

‘I’m Yeonjun,’ he answered and the moment you realized that he had just told you his name, you furrowed your brows in confusion. It wasn’t what you had meant by his turn since getting to know his name really wasn’t in your top priorities, but what were you supposed to do about his introduction when it had already been over? Pointing out that “royal servant” wasn’t your name, either, would have been unnecessarily rude. So you just sighed and waited for him to put two and two together slowly, on his own, to not offend him in the beginning of a possible alliance.

Lucky for you, Soobin seemed to be able to read the room more accurately and gained your attention with an awkward cough.

‘Did you come here through a magical portal then?’ He asked and you nodded which coaxed surprised yelps out of two members of the newcomers. So you lifted your chin a bit higher.  ‘Fine. As you could already hear from Yeonjun hyung, we have magic powers so I guess we are those benders you are looking for,’ Soobin claimed, hence it was your turn to fail to hide your emotions. Your lips parted slightly which made the boy smile. For the first time since he had laid an eye on your unconscious figure lying on the bench in the staff’s changing room at his hyung’s workplace, he found you approachable. ‘Your breathing changed the moment you woke up,’ he explained to help the stuck cogs in your brain start to spin again and while his confession earned a huff from the redhead, you were too excited to find out that you were talking to an airbender to care about his attitude.

Not until the quiet boy from the three spoke up did you take notice of your surroundings again. For Eternally! You hadn’t seen this boy since he had been like two and he had changed so much, you couldn’t have even recognized him from this close. It was absurd, but you were more than happy with the sudden turn of events.

‘Why are you looking for us?’ The quiet boy directed his question at you and the wonders in his eyes took your breath away for a sheer moment. He looked almost hopeful as though he had been waiting for this encounter just as much as you had had which was absurd. Up until a few minutes ago, he hadn’t even known that you existed. And you were pretty sure that they still didn’t know where your home - all of your home - was exactly.

While you had definitely not planned it like this, the moment you opened your mouth to give him a brief summary of your situation, it was as though a heavy gate opened inside of you. Therefore, you threw a lot more at the five boys than it might have been possible to process in such a short span of time by people who had never heard of your dimension, let alone knew that they had been born in that faraway kingdom.

‘Because our princess, our people need you to take the throne back from Chi, that ruthless tyrant from the South who killed almost the entire royal court twenty years ago. He doesn’t care about anything but power. People are trapped in unageing bodies, starving, because time stopped in our kingdom the moment he destroyed the Star Crystal and…’ you rambled with one breath, unable to notice the confused and doubtful glances the boys exchanged worriedly during your monologue.

It was Yeonjun who grabbed your shoulders gently to gain your attention and make you stop.

‘Hey, calm down. You’re talking too fast and none of us understands a word,’ he said with an apologetic smile, stroking your shoulders through the ragged textile of your clothes once and twice before he slowly let go of you and took a step back. You blinked at him, a bit bashful, before you slid your gaze from his face to the rest of the boys. They all looked kind of lost which made you feel a bit awkward. You really shouldn’t have told them so much so quickly, it was just… he asked and it had been such a long time since you could have spoken your mind when it came to this matter. Princess Sowon liked to approach it from a more hopeful aspect than you, thus you usually chose not to add your personal opinion on the topic.

‘Why don’t you take a breath and start it from the very beginning?’ Asked Soobin in his calm voice and you nodded on automatic as you let Yeonjun lead you to the bench where you had been previously lying.

You started at the very beginning, trying to reveal the truth to them bit by bit this time by following a logical structure: you told them about the dimension where you had come from, how there were different nations there with one bender in each generation and how Eternally had had five before the massacre. You had told them about the system in which they would have been raised if Chi hadn’t conquered your country, then you told them about that one time you had actually been able to lay your eyes on their carefree figures in the royal garden. When you got to the point where their families came into the picture and their original names, the three newcomers introduced themselves as well, although Taehyun, the redhead didn’t seem too happy about his friends’ trusting attitude with which you could resonate due to the past two decades behind your back. He didn’t know you nor princess Sowon, it was natural of him to be suspicious of your story. So you didn’t blame him a bit. You were just overly happy that the other four had more or less no problem with opening up to you and asking about your nation despite its people forgetting about their existence over the years.

‘We have to go back as soon as possible. Those guards, they… they have already captured the princess! Chi will execute her in front of her own people,’ you informed them, worry lacing your words. You might have tried to push this thought in the back of your mind, but it didn’t want to go away. With every answer you gave, it became more and more urgent. 

‘We will help you, don’t worry about it,’ Soobin, the boy with the soothing voice, said and when his palm stroked your shoulder blade in order to calm you, you shot a grateful smile in his way.

But the indecipherable peace in your chest couldn’t have taken longer than a few heartbeats, because hearing the older boy’s claim and no objection, Taehyun couldn’t stay still. He stood up from the bench where he had taken a seat somewhere between your detailed report on Chi and the unification of the five great nations, then threw daggers at Soobin with his eyes.

‘Will we really, hyung? Weren’t you listening? That man has an army of good swordsmen while we have nothing. Not even proper fighting skills,’ he claimed and while a part of you was angry with him for trying to win his friends over to his side, another part of you knew that he was speaking the truth. Earth was a world without barely any magic to believe in its existence while South Korea, where they had grown up, was a relatively peaceful country. They didn’t know how to fight and if what Beomgyu - the surprisingly talkative boy who had been so quiet at the beginning - had told you was true, they had discovered their magic only a bit more than a year ago. Logically speaking, your benders were no match for Chi. But since when was magic logical?

‘We have magic,’ Hueningkai reasoned, earning a snicker with his zealous exclamation. And you had to dig your nails into the edge of the bench to not stand between him and Taehyun on instinct to protect him from the older’s anger. It wasn’t as if you could have saved him if the impulsive boy had decided to use his power on him or something. Which he wouldn’t have done for real, anyway, right? You held back your breath.

‘That we can’t control properly!’ The redhead bit back.

Your gaze shifted from one person to another, trying to read the room, waiting for something, for anything to happen. But no object caught on fire and no lightning tore apart the space between the two. Not even after Soobin cleared his throat.

‘Look. We were saved by those people on the night of the massacure. We can’t turn our backs on them. We just, we need a good plan,’ he said, but in spite of his encouraging albeit small smile, Taehyun just rolled his eyes.

‘This is ridiculous!’ He said before he turned his back on your group and marched out of the room.

Truth to tell, you were grateful for what Soobin had said, but you were still in shock due to the happenings, so you couldn’t make yourself say thank you or to form a coherent sentence to begin with. Actually, not until the redhead came back to you with a mug of hot, herbal tea in his hands did your brain process the serious conversation around you. You shook your head when his gaze loitered over your frozen figure with the same, annoyed glint in his eyes. You briefly wondered whether he hated you or just the situation he was kind of forced into. Though, it was his decision that he stayed.

‘Tell us a bit more about the Star Crystal, please,’ Soobin asked you and you tore your gaze away from Taehyun’s drinking figure the moment he poked your knee. Right! You had a plan to make! A fool proof strategy that could have given you a chance to actually win and send Chi back where he had come from. You had no seconds to waste.