"You know, your mistake was falling in love with that woman..." a man's deep voice echoed in the dark room, full of authority and a certain malice he did not try to hide.
"But my lord..." another voice spoke, but a slap was heard.
"Shut up, we're Fire Nation, Fire, you idiot! Mixing with a lowly woman like a water bender has already upset other generals, and you still want to defend yourself?" the first voice scolded, and footsteps were heard.
A man in red, gold, and black robes approached what appeared to be a wooden cradle containing a small child. When he saw the little one, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, oblivious to all the commotion, a grimace of displeasure appeared on his face.
"As a general, hiding a waterbender could be considered treason, but if you had a child, I would have killed you right now. But in addition to being a Fire Lord, I am also a father," the man, who showed a somewhat aged face with gray hair, slowly brought his hand closer to the little boy.
"Then I give you two choices, Sai. Kill your wife and child and I will forget your blatant betrayal of our cause, or you may choose one of them, but you will be imprisoned like all traitors," the man laid his hand on the child's black hair, at least he had inherited that trait from his father.
Those of the Fire Nation had certain characteristics that set them apart from other nations, their black hair and golden eyes being the most symbolic, and as far as the Fire Lord knew, the little boy before him possessed both, though his skin? It was tan, like those Water Tribe types.
"My Lord, I choose my son," the voice replied without hesitation, though the trembling in his words indicated that it had not been an easy decision to make.
"But, could you protect him? I will give my life if necessary!" this voice dared to demand, since it was all in the same shit, why not try to get an advantage for his son?
"Clever as always, General Sai. But you will die not by my hand or your own, but on the battlefield against the Northern Water Tribe. You like their women, don't you, then die at their hands with what little honor you have left!"
"Yes, Lord of Azulon Fire!" the man shouted, and soon he was heard leaving the room.
There was no need to hesitate or say goodbye to his son, he had something more pressing to do. Soon the sound of banging and breaking could be heard in the distance, along with the hysterical screams of a man and a woman.
"You evil bastard! All of you Fire Nation are bastards!" the woman finally shouted, but her voice was drowned out by the roar of an explosion.
Soon after, there was only silence.
"What shall I call you now?" Azulon completely ignored everything that had happened outside this room, focusing his attention on the infant he now held in his arms.
He was a child of misfortune, that was what they called the little half-breeds born in this time of war, the Fire Nation's disdain for other nations was not just lip service, it was something more cultural, as they wanted to 'benefit' everyone.
Although miscegenation was inevitable, there was usually a very shady or sad story behind each of these children, and add to that the hatred produced by both sides in this war, and you have the perfect victim for ridicule and abuse.
"Will you be a Firebender or a Waterbender? Probably the latter, after all, you were born under the influence of the full moon," Azulon murmured as he rocked the baby, if anyone else saw him doing this they would surely think he was possessed by a spirit.
"But I suppose that would be an advantage because to integrate the other nations, we need to show them the benefits of doing so, right? You'll be the perfect tool for that, Shisui," Azulon said quietly, before he put the baby in the crib and left the room, he had to make arrangements to ensure the child's growth.
'Well, I guess the standard of every reincarnate has caught up with me, but I never expected so much darkness in this sunny world,' someone thought, and small golden eyes opened in the darkened room.
The baby had been conscious all the time, and since no one would examine a baby closely, neither Azulon nor his supposed father had discovered that he was awake. Ironically, only his mother could tell when he was pretending to sleep, but that woman was already dead.
'Why did I fall for something so simple,' Shisui thought weakly, the reasons for his rebirth were somewhat stupid, but the context was not.
His previous world had completely gone to shit, simple as that. No one knows why, but suddenly, people started going crazy and killing each other, either violently or, like him, through trickery.
Society collapsed, and it even occurred to some rulers to unleash some of those delicious stockpiled nuclear weapons, further screwing up the planet. It was as if something had been collectively activated deep inside the human mind, causing it to fall into utter chaos.
Obviously, he was a victim of it, but at least he was one of the lucky ones, he didn't have those destructive desires like the rest and could control himself properly, but under the influence of whatever it was, remorse or guilt had disappeared, allowing him to calmly commit many heinous acts.
'I can feel guilt again...' The baby realized that whatever had affected him in his homeworld had not followed him to this life, but something else had.
Perhaps because the phenomenon was supernatural, many people realized that they possessed some special abilities, but they were nothing incredible like manipulating elements or anything like that, they were more subtle abilities, silent, nothing remarkable.
It was as if this phenomenon chose certain people to make his killing easier, and he kept this "gift," as some people called it. He could see and feel other people's auras! Each with a color and meaning, an ability that allowed him to survive for a long time.
Until his stupid death came to him. No ability is invincible or omnipotent, a woman came into his life and showed him that not everyone has bad feelings towards others.
With his self-control, he managed to avoid murdering her and they built a relationship after going through many hardships, only for her to betray him by revealing that he had been chosen as her "prey" years before, and this was the way she chose to murder.
She controlled her hormones and brain secretions to truly 'fall in love' with him, fooling any ability capable of recognizing intentions, such as his own. On his deathbed, he remembered asking to go to a place of peace.
'Peace my baby fists, this world is only beautiful when they fly over Appa, mired in war and chaos with an almost divine figure guarding the earthly plane and who knows God what's in the spirit world,' the baby mused with some regret, realizing that he had probably been noticed by those super dangerous spirits, like a certain mother he avoided mentioning.
'But we can do some good, but I'm very sleepy, being a baby is terrible,' Shisui slept for a good few hours before waking up crying from hunger, a biological instinct in all babies.
With his poor eyesight, not yet used to using his eyes, he could tell he was in another room, much better lit by the way. Soon, a calm woman with a baby in her arms entered the room and looked at little Shisui with a certain resignation in her eyes.
"I don't know why 'he' adopted a child of misfortune, nor why he makes me nurse him, there are so many wet nurses available," the woman muttered in a tone full of complaint, but she had to fulfill her duties.
Princess Ursa didn't have much of a choice, let's say, so she left her newborn son Zuko at Shisui's side before she took him in her arms and examined him carefully, especially his skin.
"What a miserable life you will have, I guess we have a lot in common, don't you think? I just hope you end up better off than me," the woman said before she started to nurse Shisui.
'Don't curse me, woman, your life is a drama I don't want to experience,' Shisui thought absentmindedly while he was being fed, feeling familiar yet distant security.
'I guess this is real mother love,' Shisui didn't know why he felt this way, but in a way, this experience allowed his mind to relax.
He constantly had thoughts and internal dialogues to somehow calm his fears, he didn't like this world, he didn't like any fictional world, no, the idea of living in it didn't appeal to him.
I never thought about being 'reborn' or 'transmigrated', and even if a wasteland covered in radioactive ash and nuclear snow wasn't the best, it was my world, I didn't want to leave it just like that, although maybe it was the influence of that thing," Shisui continued to mentally ramble until his mind gradually shut down from the sleepiness he felt.
"Look Shisui, I can make fire!" a small three-year-old boy ran up to another of the same age.
Although they were similar in age, they were dressed differently, the former wearing red, gold, and black clothes, indicating his status as a prince, while the boy wore only black clothes, a kind of negative symbol.
Strangely enough, however, both of them had good complexions, indicating that neither of them had suffered any hardships, and aside from the difference in their skin color and clothing, neither of them was particularly different from the other.
"Incredible," Shisui waved his arms in the pond that was located in a certain open area of the castle, his smooth movements causing ripples in the water without even touching it as if that element was under the boy's complete control.
Indeed it was. At the age of three, Shisui already knew that he could control water like his deceased mother. Although the servants looked at him more and more badly because of it, none of them dared to play a trick on him, because, after all, the royal family was behind him.
"You don't look excited!" exclaimed the boy who was Zuko.
"No, I'm not," Shisui replied, floating a water balloon, but you could tell from the jagged and wobbly edges that it took a lot of effort.
"Great!" Zuko shouted again at the sight of his friend Shisui's water ball, but Shisui simply stopped waving his arms and let the waterfall.
"I need to learn more about water bending," Shisui mumbled, trying to replicate the moves he remembered from the show, but there was a lot of mystery and skill involved that couldn't be conveyed in an animation.
Fortunately, he knew how to meditate. It was not as unbelievable as it might seem, anyone can meditate, and he used it a lot in his first life to calm himself or control his gift, so he was very familiar with the action.
But meditating was not a trick to gain super control abilities, if anything it allowed him to gradually access the extraordinary energy of this world, the Chi, but not much more.
"Zuko, do you want to race turtle ducks?" bored, Shisui invited Zuko to release the energy that every child has at this young age.
"All right, I'll beat you this time!" promised Zuko, who went over to the pond to grab one of the little critters, oblivious to the subtle look Shisui gave him.
'You fool, I always cheat, you won't be able to beat me,' the boy thought mischievously before he grabbed a turtleduck of his own.
"¡1, 2, 3!"