Chapter Text
Somewhere in time and space…
Tanya woke in an unfamiliar place and quickly processed why she was there. She remembered her death in what should have been the final battle of a ten-year war. Just as she believed the berserker's end had come—piercing her rival's chest and crushing her heart with an arm imbued by a mage blade—the wretched woman managed to grab Tanya's orb and overload it with her own power, blowing them both to pieces.
She awoke in a Greek-style temple and, to her surprise, the cursed Mary was beside her, hand resting on the Type 95. Tanya quickly shoved her away and stood up; the force sent the girl against a pillar, the impact waking her instantly.
"What?! Wait, where do you think you're going, devil?!" Mary spat, glare full of fury as she scrambled up, searching for her weapon.
"Enough of this! Look around! We're dead, you lunatic! Congratulations, you killed me. Now drop the insanity," Tanya said, scanning the area for Being X. Mary looked around and a smile spread across her face.
"I did it... I avenged my father! Thank you, God! But what are you doing here? You should be in hell," Mary said. Her initial joy quickly curdled back into rage as she looked at Tanya.
"Oh, no. First, we need to speak with the impostor who claims to be God. Show yourself, Being X!" Tanya barked, irritated.
"Meeting God... this is wonderful! It must be a reward for completing my mission, and to ensure I witness your end," Mary said, ecstatic and completely ignoring Tanya's words.
"WHERE ARE YOU, YOU INCOMPETENT PARASITE?!" Tanya screamed at the top of her lungs.
"That is quite enough, my lost lamb..." Being X spoke. When he appeared, he looked uneasy. Upon seeing Mary, his discomfort visibly deepened into a confusion that Tanya immediately caught.
"See, you maniac? This is your precious God. And it looks like you weren't expected here. Being X, your incompetence has reached a new level."
"DO NOT INSULT GOD, YOU DEMON… Wait, you know each other?" Mary's irritation shifted into pure disbelief.
Before Being X could speak, Mary shouted in his defense. For some unknown reason, her cry shook him. Tanya, watching for an opening, noticed the use of magic fused with something else—seemingly involuntary—emanating from the girl. She guessed it was affecting him directly. Seeing the result of the shout and how dazed he remained, she placed a bet.
"Yes, I know him. He orchestrated this entire war just to test my faith because I told him he wasn't God," Tanya stated with a smirk, watching Mary's face crumble.
"But my father..." Mary stammered.
"Yes, he was sacrificed; all your God's handiwork. In fact, he gave me a blessing just to ensure I could kill your father," Tanya said, brandishing her Type 95 orb.
Tanya hoped it would be enough to make Mary snap, and the girl did not disappoint. Just as Being X was recovering from the first shout, he was hit by another, even more intense and aimed directly at him.
"WHY, GOD? WHY GIVE A BLESSING TO THIS DEVIL?!"
Mary's scream made Being X recoil, clutching his ears. Tanya gambled that the girl's voice could reach him because of her faith, but combined with whatever blessing she possessed, it was like shouting through a megaphone directly into his ear. Taking advantage of the entity's blinding headache, Tanya slipped behind Mary toward one of the pillars. She felt the orb still had a connection to the mad girl, so she would have to leave it behind while the other screamed for explanations.
As a final insult, she decided to leave a souvenir: using the energy stored in the Type 95, she programmed it to project an illusion of herself sitting and watching the scene with a wide, sarcastic grin, looping it as she slipped away unseen.
Outside, she gazed at the clouds and stars. She saw colored ribbons flowing from the stars to the clouds, where their color was washed away before returning to another star as a blank slate. As she watched, she noticed the ribbons from many stars passed through Being X's temple, as well as other distant structures. There were others, however, with no connection to any structure at all. These dwellings must belong to the "gods"—proof that he was just one among a crowd.
Looking at the ribbons, she smiled; this was her chance. Following her intuition to plot an escape, she studied the ribbons' paths and reached out toward one returning to a distant star, unconnected to any "divine" structures. Upon touching it, her body was absorbed into the ribbon, which turned silver, beginning the journey toward her new life.
New World, New Life
In this new existence, the first thing Tanya realized was that war must have corrupted her karma somehow; it was the only explanation for being born albino in a nomadic tribe within a vast desert. She refused to blame the "parasite" for this, as she had decided never to utter its name again to avoid attracting its attention. Furthermore, she resolved not to direct anger or any other emotion toward it, considering that, in a twisted way, even hatred was a form of faith.
The Qashai tribe, where she was born, consisted mainly of gatherers living in a region of ravines inhabited by a strange type of scorpion-spider, roughly the size of a medium dog. The tribe harvested the silk from these creatures to produce fabric. They moved periodically to prevent the spiders from hunting them for frequenting their territory.
Those born with Bending were trained to enter the spiders' domain, collect the silk, and occasionally capture them to extract their venom—another valuable commodity. The venom was a potent paralytic, used by the creatures to immobilize victims before wrapping them in silk and squeezing them until they liquefied, allowing the spiders to consume the resulting fluid.
The tribe was a tightly-knit community; survival was a collective effort adapted to the harsh desert life. They were considered wealthy by other tribes due to their high-quality clothing and their ability to secure advantageous trades for food and luxuries. Despite the misfortune of desert living, Tanya felt compensated by a good family: a very loving father and mother. However, she craved a bit more space. While attempting to sneak out of the house to explore, she was caught by her mother.
"Don't even think about leaving, my 'Moon Flower'," she said, embracing her warmly with a laugh.
Tanyin's current appearance—her new name—was that of a three-year-old child, a cute girl with long hair and pale skin. Trust her luck to suffer from albinism, which, to her surprise, hadn't been an issue so far. Another obstacle was that, being so small, she simply wasn't allowed to go out alone.
"Nila, I..." she tried to speak, but was immediately cut off.
"None of that 'Nila' business. Call me mother," she said, caressing her daughter's face.
"But your name is so beautiful, Mother..." Tanyin replied. Dealing with such affection was disconcerting; Tanyin ended up yielding, and though she looked grumpy, deep down, she was enjoying it.
While being carried by her mother—a humiliation for a war veteran—Tanyin was taken outside. The tribe lived in structures resembling small forts. The houses were made of light-colored stone, raised through Earthbending, with thick walls to keep the interior cool. The roofs were domes to prevent sand accumulation, featuring slit-like openings where the dome sections met.
According to the Grand Elder, the houses were identical to those of their ancestors, who lived on the backs of humanity's ancient guardians: the colossal Lion Turtles.
"He must have drunk too much cactus juice in search of enlightenment to imagine something like that," Tanyin thought with her habitual skepticism.
"So, where was my little explorer running off to?" Nila asked, spinning them both excitedly in a dance-like step.
Tanyin's mother was a complete airhead. Nothing seemed to dampen her high spirits; she carried herself like someone half her age, and her natural appearance was already youthful. She had long hair, dark eyes, and stood about five feet tall, with a figure that made her hugs remarkably comfortable. She preferred light clothing that allowed for maximum freedom of movement, giving her the look of a fragile teenage dancer, though she was surprisingly strong for her size.
"I was going to watch the bending practice. I want to learn, so please..." Tanyin tried using her cutest, most persuasive voice.
"Of course I'll take you, sweetheart!" Nila exclaimed. She always seemed ready to be on the move; Tanyin often wondered if she had some form of ADHD.
As they walked toward the training grounds, Nila would occasionally twirl or toss her daughter into the air. It certainly wasn't recommended for a toddler, but Tanyin loved the sensation of flight, even if only for a few seconds—and her mother knew it by her smile. Having an airhead for a mother wasn't so bad after all, she thought.
Arriving at the practice area, she saw the children lined up before Boran, a large man and one of the tribe's strongest warriors. He demonstrated linear, forceful movements in a rhythm that alternated between static and explosive—a fighting style focused heavily on reaction.
"They're so rigid... They don't understand there are better ways to connect with the earth," Nila commented, squeezing Tanyin as if she were a teddy bear.
"Hey, this is the traditional bending style passed down by our ancestors!" Boran retorted.
"It's still limited," Nila replied with a shrug.
"We've talked about this. Even if your husband is the tribal chief, it's the Grand Elder who decides how the youth are taught," Boran grumbled.
"You know, I wonder if that old man is ever going to die, or if he'll just keep shrinking until he vanishes," she said, smirking. Tanyin thought about how disrespectful her mother could be toward authority; only Grandma Yara, the second oldest person in the tribe, was worse than her in that regard.
"You shouldn't talk about the Grand Elder like that. Besides, what are you doing here?" Boran said, sighing.
"My little flower wanted to see the training," Nila shrugged.
"Has the little one been able to feel her bending capacity yet?" Boran asked.
"Um, no," Tanyin said, still observing the children.
"I think this is taking too long; perhaps she's a late bloomer," Boran said, though his face showed he had doubts about whether Tanyin was a bender at all.
"No, I think the problem is something else. She just hasn't found the 'path' to reach her bending," Nila commented, resting her chin on top of her daughter's head.
"Perhaps, but her focus is impressive," he said, noting how intently she watched the execution of the movements.
Tanyin was focused not just on technique, but on Chi. She had been able to feel it since she woke up in this world. In benders, the flow connected to the world with ease. Her own Chi was highly developed, even allowing her to heal herself by concentrating it on an injured part of her body. But she hadn't yet been able to bridge it with the Chi of the "earth" to control it.
One curious thing was that Chi, while fundamentally similar, possessed slight differences that created a distinct signature for each person. But there were exceptions: the twin sisters Jita and Kira, whose Chis were distinct compared to everyone else; using music as a comparison, their Chi was in a different timbre. If they didn't try to rub her head so often, she might even enjoy spending time with them to study this difference.
"I think I've had enough of this boring practice," Nila said, making a vein pulse in Boran's forehead.
"You'd better go. This is training, not entertainment," Boran said.
Her mother grabbed her and twirled as if in a dance step. The sand beneath the children solidified and spun, causing the youths, mid-movement, to launch a stone at Boran that he narrowly escaped. As he shouted, the mother walked away laughing, tossing Tanyin into the air. By now, the girl could predict with 80% accuracy when her mother would throw her.
When they reached home, Nila opened a passage in the floor of the main room. They descended into a vast underground cavern illuminated by crystals. Since the tribe moved every four months, the houses were "sunk" into these cavities for protection, but Nila had other uses for the space.
"My little flower, let me show you how it's done," Nila smiled, molding a stone chair for her daughter. What followed was a magnificent dance. Rocks levitated and sand rose like waves. Tanyin noticed the difference: in others, Chi imposed will upon the world; in Nila, Chi formed a partnership.
Noticing her daughter's reaction, Nila scooped her up and continued the dance. Tanyin focused intensely on her mother's energy flow, trying to decipher that logic while touching her.
Mother and daughter were having fun together. Moments like these made this new life worth it. In that instant, something clicked. Tanyin's Chi harmonized with Nila's, and both noticed a strange green glow emanating from where the heart would be.
"What was that? I always knew you were bright, but you weren't supposed to be literal!" Nila pulled at the collar of her dress, but the glow had vanished.
"I don't know... but let me try something." Tanyin, still in her mother's arms, mimicked one of the arm movements she had seen her mother perform. With a fluid motion, a small amount of sand moved in response.
"Oh! How incredible! My Moon Flower is wonderful!" Nila spun her in the air. Tanyin simply surrendered to the sensation and laughed along with her mother.