There was something strange in the atmosphere. Shisui could not identify what it was, but everything felt so uncomfortable. The events in front of him seemed to be seen through a strange filter. Everything was distorted, without sound, as if he was watching all these scenes while submerged in water.

It was eerie to see the people he had known and grown up with acting strangely, like puppets manipulated by a great puppeteer on a stage.

Something about it all seemed wrong, but his mind was so clouded that he couldn't figure out what it was. But one detail did not escape him, no matter how sluggish his mind was: he was not a participant in what he was observing.

He saw Ozai burning Zuko's face, he saw Azula being cruel to the people around her. He saw Ty Lee and Mai's fear as they stood near Azula. He saw the deep sadness on Iroh's face and saw the Fire Nation being dragged into deeper levels of chaos as they spread flames across the world.

"No!" Shisui fought against everything he saw, trying to move, trying to get out of the water that trapped him.

He watched as Azula slowly descended into madness after suffering several setbacks in her 'idyllic life,' watched as Zuko learned to dance with the dragons, watched as the brothers fought with their fire as a comet streaked across the sky.

Shisui wasn't someone who didn't fight, he didn't understand what he was doing here, why he couldn't do anything, no, why he couldn't even control the water that imprisoned him, but he had something that nothing and no one could take away!

Shisui's eyes lost their sparkle as the world around him changed, and what he saw completely froze his blood. He didn't see the typical colors represented in the aura, those colors that the strange colorless world had in his eyes when he used his gift.

He saw inert, rigid objects that acted like Azula and Zuko as they fought. He saw the lines that connected their limbs and controlled their actions. He saw how the world seemed fragile, nonexistent except for the scenes he could see.

"What is this?" asked Shisui, waving his hands for the last time in the most basic movement a waterbender could make.

The water around him trembled, the filter through which he could see shaking, filling with ripples and erasing the scenes before him. Then the sound of wood hitting the ground echoed.

Shisui felt something dormant, how could he have this strange perception? Everything in this place changed so much and was so random, but his mind was too foggy to wonder about it.

Shisui saw a huge hand in the sky, lazy in its smooth movements. Threads fell from its fingers, connecting all the existences of the world under its palm.

But the ripple effect grew worse, and one by one, those threads broke, releasing the people they controlled. Azula and Zuko stopped fighting, Aang stopped fighting Ozai, and Iroh hugged his son tightly.

Everything seemed to be distorted at this point, the world seemed to have hit the reverse button and the severed strings fluttered, trying to connect to the lost puppets.

How could he let this happen!? Shisui waved his hands in the subtle movements that caused the water to purify, and slowly, a mist emerged from the entire stage he was on.

There were a multitude of blurry figures he could not understand, talking, opining, and writing, but Shisui was trying to purify the place he was in. The intense golden glow illuminated everything before his eyes and then...

Shisui woke up.

He was breathing heavily, almost out of breath. Cold sweat poured from his forehead and his eyes were slightly blurred. His hands were shaking, and his thoughts were extremely chaotic, but comforting palms came from behind his back and rested on his bare chest.

"Are you all right?" Azula's sleepy voice and the cool touch of her hands brought Shisui back.

"No..." Shisui replied truthfully as he fell back to meet Azula's worried gaze, which the sheet covered.

For a moment, Shisui was lost in the messy black hair that covered part of his face and part of his bare shoulder as she decided to embrace him.

Without another word, Azula clung to Shisui and laid her head on her fiancé's shoulder. She used her long fingernails to run down Shisui's torso, concentrating on his abdominal muscles.

"I had that dream again, but this time I was able to do something," Shisui murmured after a while, and although Azula's movements stopped for a moment, she brought her hand to Shisui's face and placed it on his cheek.

"So you were the riotous water in this repetitive and stagnant world," Azula said, knowing the nature of Shisui's dream.

Since his return from the spirit world, Shisui had had this dream every few months. At first, he saw a replica of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Seeing his acquaintances acting as mere puppets from a script was a direct shock to him.

This world was real, he had been integrated into it since he was born here, he never saw his new life as a way to gain power while hitting on every available woman while trying to control other elements and be the Avatar 2.0.

No, he lived in this world as a real person, which is why he made childish attempts to improve the Fire Nation one step at a time. That's why he tried so hard to guide Ozai to be a better man for his family, even if he was still the ruthless Fire Lord.

He did it, with effort, even knowing that he could be killed or worse, imprisoned and tortured for his knowledge, he took the risk. Even though the idea of traveling to another world seemed distasteful to him at first, he eventually came to accept his current life, especially when he met the Avatars.

So how could he not feel bad about having such a symbolic dream? He had no powers of prediction, but spirituality could be a bitch sometimes, you know?

Sure, the only person who knew his dreams was Azula, because it wasn't something he could freely share, but it wasn't something he wanted to keep to himself either, not something as weird and strange as this one.

"But I don't know what it means, is there some super ancient being manipulating this world? Does it see us as a puppet show? These spectators... what are they?" Shisui started to think about it, but a warm feeling interrupted his questions.

Azula kissed him, distracting his mind from these complicated things and grounding him in the situation he was in. He was living in a real world, not a story. He lived a life, one of many he lived and would live.

Unlike the last one, he could enjoy being loved. Although he missed the Internet, having a pretty girl lying next to him was just as good. After a while, Shisui and Azula stopped kissing.

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The princess looked at Shisui, her golden eyes shining behind her black hair, giving her a rather beautiful appearance. Shisui gasped again but with good reason.

Why do I feel so overwhelmed? Law? Fate? Manipulation? Acting? No! He was real, this was real, if this last dream showed him anything, it was that the threads could be cut, no, they had already been cut.

Maybe his birth into this world was just something ordinary in the great cumulus of multiverses in the great sea, void, or whatever. But if anything, his presence here cut all those threads and stirred up the dead water of this world.

There was no sudden fate to undo all that he had accomplished, Lu Ten did not die as he was 'supposed to' according to the canon, nor did he suffer a sudden illness to fulfill his 'role'.

What if 'fate' somehow wanted to fight him because things didn't go as they were supposed to? Or how they were written in the play? Well, Shisui was pretty good at stabbing people with his spear.

"Shisui... I appreciate that name a little more now," the young man muttered, drawing a smile from Azula.

"Ah, isn't it better than calling you 'Bunny'?" teased Azula, making Shisui grimace a little, though he laughed too.

"Hey, my mother thought of a good name, Yu Tu, the spirit rabbit friend of the oon and Ocean spirits. I met him on my last trip to the spirit world, he's a cool guy," Shisui defended himself, making Azula laugh even harder.

"My grandfather gave you the right name, don't you think?" Azula asked suddenly, causing Shisui to nod.

"I guess with so many spiritual things running around in this world, names have some meaning, don't they?" Shisui then yawned, it was obvious that he was very tired.

As if his gesture had activated something, Azula yawned as well, before she clung to her fiancé more tightly, closing her eyes before muttering something so low that Shisui could barely hear her.

"I love you, Shisui..." Soon, Azula's breathing became slow and soft, indicating that she was completely asleep.

"I love you, Azula," Shisui replied softly, and Azula wriggled a little, drawing a sweet smile as if she had heard his words in between dreams.

"My lord, I still propose that we search for the Avatar in the Poles, and since the south is weaker, we can deal a strong blow to the Water Tribe there," Zhao, dressed in his Fire Nation uniforms, kneeled in front of Ozai's throne.

Red and yellow flames surrounded the room, raising the temperature considerably, but neither Zhao nor any of the nobles present dared to wipe the sweat from their foreheads, not with the highest power in the nation before them.

Ozai looked at Zhao with a sneer, hidden because the others could not see his features in detail due to the way the meeting room was lit.

You think I don't know about your stupid ambitions, Zhao? Ozai remembered the report from one of his spies in the Navy.

Zhao had taken a trip to a certain place in the Earth Kingdom years ago, a place where it was conveniently rumored that there was a library filled with all the knowledge in the world.

Now, with his intentions to attack the Poles, especially the south, where the origin of the spiritual pulse that heralded the Avatar's arrival was felt, Ozai could only think of two things: Zhao wanted success, which is not a bad thing.

Or Zhao's ambition had run so wild that he had gone insane, which was usually what happened to those who were obsessed with achievement. Zhao didn't like him, maybe before, when extremism was one of the ways he had to solve everything.

But now? With such a big world to see, a better way to bring the Fire Nation's cultural and technological advances to the world, and even the chance that at least the Avatar wouldn't try to wipe out his nation in revenge.

No, he wasn't going to let Zhao do whatever crazy thing he had in mind, but he couldn't be biased or radical either. His father and brother had given him good advice that he had put into practice, and so he sometimes regretted those dark thoughts of wanting to kill his old man or his nephew to discourage Iroh.

Why, he didn't know exactly, but since he had gotten to know Shisui better and the things the boy had done to put those thoughts aside, his mind had expanded to what his father had called a ruler with vision.

He was now leading his nation into a second golden age, he had a beautiful wife, three sons who each excelled in their way, a brother to chat with, a father to ask for advice, and even a future pair of skilled sons-in-law.

Ozai glared at Zhao, his presence as a fire lord coupled with his martial strength completely overwhelming Zhao, who trembled under the burning gaze of his ruler.

"Vice Admiral Zhao, I have heard your proposals several times through various channels. Now you come directly to me and make the same request, I must admit I appreciate your stubbornness," Ozai praised Zhao, causing the man to smile while keeping his head down.

"Search for the Avatar? I've had a task force doing that for some time now, and while the aforementioned man or woman hasn't been found, a lot of interesting information has been gathered in this world.

Do you understand the importance of the Avatar as well as I do? I think you do, so... will you look it up? Fine, you will. But, and I want you to hear me, Vice Admiral Zhao," As Ozai said these words, the flames in the meeting room rose sharply.

The heat became almost unbearable, but no one moved, not even to drink from the nearby water, all attentive to Fire Lord Ozai's next words.

"You will seek the Avatar, but you will be followed by Shisui, who will supervise you. I assume you can appreciate the importance I attach to your proposal, after all, you went to great lengths to get me to accept it," Ozai's words hit Zhao hard.

His joy rose quickly when he heard that he would be able to search for the Avatar, but plummeted to hell when he heard that he would have to travel with Shisui. Why did that guy have to go with him!?

Shisui had so many successes! So many that he did not even want to compete with him! Not only that, he basically cut off a lot of careerists who wanted to get close to Azula when she turned 18.

No one in their right mind dared propose to Azula when she was so young and engaged to Shisui. That your youngest son would be betrothed to Princess Kiyi? Did you want your line to be cut off?

Everyone knows that the royal family holds the little princess on an almost divine pedestal, not only receiving the attention of her two outstanding brothers, who even take time out of their military duties to visit her on her birthday.

Azulon loved his granddaughter dearly, and the old man was strong enough both politically and personally that any fool would want to marry his son to the princess.

And those evil bastards who wanted to revive the old ways of thousands of years ago, of getting engaged to a young girl even as an adult? Hehe, check the records of extinct families, you'll find theirs there for sure.

Zhao wanted fame, status, and power. Shisui had all three, especially since he was the last Enlightened One to be enrolled. How could he fight against an Enlightened One?

'Unless...' a dark thought grew in Zhao's mind, but he didn't let it seep out, he simply accepted the Fire Lord's order.

"Yes, Your Majesty! It will be an honor to undertake this mission with someone as outstanding as Sage Shisui!" said Zhao with perfect control over his emotions, but in his mind, he had already woven a plan.

'Agni Kai can only be fought with fire, how could a waterbender burn a firebender?' In his plans, Zhao had the perfect person to fight such a duel with Shisui.

Sure, Zhao knew that steam could burn, but it was essentially waterbending, and only firebending was allowed. Would Shisui refuse? Then he would be a coward! Would he accept? Then he would lose!

'The perfect plan!' Zhao chuckled to himself as he walked out of the castle, not noticing a small, chubby orange cat watching his actions with a critical eye.

Soon, Musu was back on Azula's lap, telling her in code about the things that had happened in the capital and about Zhao. Azula narrowed her eyes at the sound of that name.

Vice Admiral Zhao had sent his so-called nephew to the training camp, and he had gotten too close to her, even trying to show off in her presence.

An obvious attempt at intimacy, but no less unpleasant for it. The boy was almost stalking her, because she put him in his place at the young man's first attempt to touch her, to 'lead' her in training as if she had never done that because of her princess status.

She still remembered the satisfying sound of his nose crunching as she gave him a Chi-powered blow. From that day on, the boy turned away when he saw her and would not speak in her presence.

She was punished for this, but she never regretted or apologized for her actions. When she told this to Shisui, Azula swore that it was the first time she had ever seen Shisui show jealousy, and his exact words at that moment were:

"When I see that guy, I'm going to break his nose." Remembering that moment, Princess Azula smiled as she stroked Musu's hair, which began to purr.

"That man is a careerist, I'm sure he'll think of something ridiculous to annoy Shisui. Musu, can you atone him for me for a while? I'll give you all the fish you want if you find something interesting," Azula said, taking the cat by the chubby cheeks.

A meow served as a response, but instead of leaving in a hurry, the cat rubbed its head and neck against Azula's belly before continuing to purr, a situation that made the princess smile with tenderness in her eyes.

"Okay, I'll give you some now, but you're fat, you should exercise more," if Musu heard these words, it didn't show it, it just stroked Azula's hand with its tail.

'Only a fool would exercise when I can have all the fish I want,' Musu thought, its cat eyes glittering with cunning and gluttony.