There was a pervading silence across hundreds of meters of soft, green grass. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, directly above the mass of human bodies huddled together to witness the speech that would make history today. Sweat beaded their foreheads and infants wailed in response to the searing heat. They were largely ignored, an umbrella only masking the sun, but not making it any cooler. It seemed like each and every one of them were holding their breaths as a small, middle-aged man walked across the polished wooden floors of the stage in the center of the field. He was slightly hunched over (a sign of age that he wasn't able to escape) and deep lines were etched into his face around his eyes and mouth like the cracked sand of the desert floor. The brown hair that extended just below his hair was tainted with flecks of gray. All of these were a sign of weakness in this day and age. However, if you were to look into the unfathomable depths of his dark brown eyes you wouldn't think that was so for they nearly bore into your soul, making you experience a fear you had never known before. His jaw was strong and square, the threshold to a deep power lurking within him and when he opened that threshold, the most controversial demons emerged from within.

"It would seem the Avatar cycle is at its end. The continual struggle for supremacy by the benders has finally ceased. Now, now it is our time to rise up and claim what is rightfully ours! The gods have given us a chance to redeem ourselves! After centuries of living in fear among the benders, being oppressed by them and ridiculed for being 'abnormal', it is now us who have center stage. A new era has dawned. An era in which the non-benders are at the top of the hierarchal pyramid and the terrorizing benders are now at the bottom! Let's show them what horrors we had to experience while living in their shadow! Today marks the beginning of a new revolution! We are the United Global Elite and this is our world!"-

Such a powerful voice emanating from a weak, mortal vessel. The crowd erupted into cheers and hollers, indistinguishable bodies moving in a uniform motion.

"Please, please, hold your applause~" the man instructed, taking a few steps back to a large object concealed by black velvet robes. In the blink of an eye the man was shrouded in darkness, the object having taken all of the glory away from him. Two men each decorated with light, titanium material stomped on stage with an older woman bound by cuffs. She had that unmistakable aura about her: a bender, and from the water tribe from the look of it. Her skin was the color of rich caramel, her eyes as blue as the sea. Most of her gray hair had been cut off by the guards, leaving it in a matted mess that splayed like wires around her head.

"No.. No please," she begged, her voice meek and lips trembling. The light blinded her already failing vision, but the guards took no pity on her.

"Here before you is a perfect example of the flaw in nature that we're trying to purge. A waterbender! More importantly, one who was involved in the murder of an innocent child!"

"No, I didn't harm anyone!" she shouted, her eyes desperately scanning the crowd for a friendly face that would believe an old woman who posed no threat to society. All she received were a mix of blurs and black holes in the middle of pale faces that held no emotion. "I went to report the murder, I didn't kill her!"

A resounding smack echoed throughout the field, bouncing off of nearby buildings. The old woman was sent wobbling towards the ground before a strong hand nearly jerked her from mid-fall. Under normal circumstances, such an assault or shocking sound would illicit some reaction from the crowd. But these were not normal circumstances and this crowd was anything but affected by it. This was the modern world: desensitized, vile and filled with nothing but sadistic tendencies to distract from their own misery.

"Why have I brought her before you today, you ask? Well, let me show you!" With the snap of his fingers, two unrecognizable characters from the back of the stage lifted the cover off of a giant machine shaped, as it were, like a tube and filled with a malicious green gelatinous material that mimicked a death trap you would see in horror films. Without the ability to move her arms, the liquid would not bend to the woman's will. Perhaps inside she would have been able to thwart this whole operation, but the leader of this treachery was far too smart to overlook that precious detail. She was thrust through the penetrable film of the tube and from a cone-shaped section of the machine at the top that looked far too big to house anything but air came two cylinders. They spun in a circle once before the black crack down the middle burst and the mold of a hand could be seen inside. The old woman's upper appendages were trapped inside those cylinders as well as her feet when two other contraptions came sprouting from underneath the machine. Finally, a metal mask was strapped against her face, so tight that it nearly made her bleed. It drained out the liquid that started to fill the woman's lungs and allowed her to breath. That would be the only luxury of the day.

The ringmaster produced a small metal box decorated with many colorful buttons of all shapes and sizes from his coat pocket and suspended it high in the air for all to see. With one small click, the woman was sent into a world of pain. Electrical surges sent through the liquid tensed all of the muscles within her body, making her contort into ways not thought humanly possible. Veins protruded from her skin to the point where they were about to burst, her eyes doing the same and a piercing, violent scream ripped through her throat. This continued until a loading screen located in the center of a monitor attached to the machine finished. Another click and she was pain-free, only the echoes of the surges and the fear of what was to come causing her any discomfort. She panted heavily, body sore as it returned to normal. It was a miracle she did not break any bones during that time.

"This is a remarkable piece of machinery I must tell you," the man started. "It creates a cure for these monsters by completely ridding them of their bending powers! You don't believe me? Watch this."

The restraints suddenly released her and she fell towards the ground right out of the tube, her body hitting hard against the cold, unforgiving industrial floor. The guards reappeared by her side, yanking her up to her knees where they proceeded to drag her over to a small, caged pit housed mere ten feet from the stage. She was tossed inside, collapsing on the floor without any energy to stand up. What did she have to gain from that anyway? Defiance would only incite the crowd to do more torture to her and she wouldn't be able to bear that pain again.

Over to the left, two other guards were dragging a feisty waterbender over to the cage who continually elbowed them in an attempt to get away. Of course, their armor made it feel as if he were merely nudging them. He was around the age of eighteen, a darker than than the woman was with luminous blue eyes and milk chocolate dreads that hung in a mess around his face and neck. All in all, he was handsome and fit as well, dressed in nothing but dark blue ragged trousers with a shell necklace hanging around his neck.

The woman looked up, sorrow filling her blue eyes which had paled considerably since she first walked across that stage. The boy was thrown into the cage with her, though he tried to escape before they closed the door. When he realized that there truly was no escape, he knew that he'd have to give in to the demands of the leader in order to survive. He'd have to kill the woman.

Time seemed to slow down as he turned to face her, bright blue eyes still filled with so much fight locked on to hers. She was weak, too weak to fight back even if that machine didn't rid her of her bending gift. He could tell that she was disoriented, confused as to what was going on now. She was still partially blinded by the searing pain she had just experienced. He wouldn't know what that was like, though. Hopefully, when she fell, he wouldn't have to experience it at all.

Before the woman knew it, she was being pelted by water placed in a bucket beside the young man. It sliced her arm, though not deep enough to strike the bone. He wanted her to fight even if she never realized that. A few moments passed where the boy didn't do anything. He simply waited and that gave the woman enough time to regain her sense and stand back up to face him. There was a bucket of water next to her as well, but she didn't realize it was there before her eyes found it. That was strange… She couldn't feel its presence and when she tried to bend it to her will, she failed. The water was still like her heart pulse for a brief moment. Again and again she tried to move the water, dipping her hands into it to try to feel it, but they were numb to the texture. Her bond with the element was severed. She could no longer bend. Upon realizing this, she sank to her knees and wept, dry sobs shaking her to the very core… She wasn't even strong enough to create tears.

"Finish her," arose the grave voice of the man above them. The young waterbender glanced up at him with fear, not having the heart to grant the woman that favor.
"I said finish her!"

The boy cringed, summoning up a large wave of water that, when sliced into pieces nearly as thin as a blade, was sure to end the woman. He trudged over to her crumpled form, standing above her with the blade of water neatly above her neck.

'On the count of three. One… two…. Three…..'

CRASH!