A step before I died, I reflected on the years I had lived. It all started with the great fortune of being born into the ruling family of fire mages. The power of ancestral magic, the best training, and the power, all turned my head. I wanted more — the throne of the Master of Fire, and then the conquest of the whole world.

"I was almost there" - this thought has not left me all these years. If it wasn't for the betrayal of my son and brother, I would have succeeded. Iroh and Zuko played a key role in my defeat. My father was the first to reproach me all my life. It didn't matter to him that I was twenty years younger than my brother and physically couldn't beat him in many things. It broke all my efforts. Fortunately, the heir to the title of Master of Fire must serve in the army. It gave me time to study: combat strategy, physical training, practicing fire magic. I was able to surpass Iroh in everything. My lightning bolt, fired from two hands, was able to surprise my brother, and my strategies allowed me to win many significant fights, raising me in the eyes of my father. But in the end, Iroh ruined everything by turning his son against me. Zuko was an heir who didn't have a third of my magic power, which put my plans in jeopardy. The only way out was to kill him, so that my shame would not be known. I wish I had done it. The priests and my wife were able to persuade me.

Ursa, granddaughter of Avatar Roku. My marriage to her was supposed to provide my children with strong blood… After the defective Zuko, I began to doubt this idea. In vain, my daughter exceeded all my expectations. Azula became a formidable weapon in my hands, but she also betrayed me by making peace with her brother. She was supposed to organize a rebellion, kill her brother, and then release me.

But my return to the throne never happened. As a result, lying on the cold floor, I stare at the ceiling, living out my last moments.

The spirit world. 

"Vatu is tired. The sister, the balance, and the damned cycles-they were all so sick of it. My narrow-minded sister, who thinks of herself as a prophet who knows the right way, which in her understanding is a world of balance, where there is no violence, and most importantly-me. The same balance she'd been telling me about when we were tied up. All this time, she was telling me that the darkness should go away, making room for the light. Then there was this freedom because of a fool, which turned my head, which ended with my imprisonment and subsequent cycles.

But cycles are the last element, the element of Delirium. They shouldn't be there, they shouldn't nullify all my chances of being released! But it's happening, and I have to do something about it.

Ozai is a variable with the wrong type. Usually he dies in prison, his soul is destroyed and the cycle begins. 

Assuming I pump him full of dark energy… This should deprive him of the remnants of humanity, which will eventually lead the world into chaos. This option is very tempting, but it will not affect the cycles in any way. The equilibrium conditions are not met — the cycle starts again. 

The balance in the sister's vision is also not suitable… This all led me to an interesting thought: "What if we combine two personalities who play an important role in the restart of the cycle? Ozai, who must bring chaos by achieving the sacred balance destroyed by his ancestors. Aang is a man who holds the world by a thread, with his imposed mission to revive the world. Two souls with their own characters, knowledge and different experiences will become one person. I don't know what will come of it, but I have nothing to lose."

Vatu, who had just come out of his thoughts, looked off into the distance. Its dark tentacles began to make grasping movements, trying to grope for something invisible and failing each time. But at the last moment, he was finally able to find Ozai's soul.

Ozai's soul, held in Vatu's grip, began to change. The spirit tried to increase its supposed chance of liberation by infusing neutral energy into the soul. This, alas, will not affect the magic in any way, but it will make the body stronger. At the last moment, when he was able to finish the procedure, the soul began to slowly dissolve, merging with the darkness exuded by the Cotton Wool. 

And in parallel, the world was beginning a new cycle. At the last second before the restart, the final crumb of energy dissolved.

Two years before the alleged events began.

The bottom is one of many states, including consciousness. Aang is about to experience all aspects of this concept. His nation was cut out by the roots, a hundred years have passed since that moment, which increases the pressure, and, most importantly, now it is up to him to clean it up. Being unconscious, at the bottom, literally, he doesn't know it yet. After two years, when he wakes up, he must sink to the bottom in a figurative sense-having learned and realized the scale. It was going to happen, but for better or worse, it wasn't going to happen because of a small change in the form of a gap that had formed near Aang's "prison".

The gap was caused by a sphere that was like a beacon of order energy. This same energy drew Ozai's soul inside the icy cocoon. The Soul circled around the Avatar, trying to find something. It didn't last long, but the soul was able to find a place where it could access the monk's soul.

The merging of souls, if simplified to explain, is quite simple. It all starts with a matrix or a spark, the name is not so important. This is the center of the soul — after death, it either goes to the spirit world, or to rebirth. Then there are the shells that store all the information about a person and his body. The fusion takes place as follows: the strongest spark begins to dominate, while the weak one is knocked out of the soul structure and sent for rebirth. Then there are the connections of the shells — at this stage, the character begins to emerge. Then, on the basis of the shells, the body is formed or changed.

Having finished selecting the best of both souls, the process of formation proceeds to change the body. The sight of an unformed child began to be replaced by a young guy. The features of the face began to change dramatically to brutally refined. The eyes changed to red with an even larger slit. The eyebrows became thinner and more expressive. The vegetation on the entire body, including the hair, began to change color to bluish-black. The body began to stretch and grow into a mass. The muscles rearranged themselves, becoming leaner and stronger.

The final stage of the merger is the unification of the energies of souls. It is the energy that gives the body magic. This was accompanied by a burst of energy that destroyed the sphere. 

Thus began a new history of the world of Avatar, spirits and elements.