"I admit, you are strong, but you will not be able to get out of this, Sage Shisui," the Dai Li leader tried to talk to Shisui again just before the fight started because of Zuko.
"But even if I fail, more will come against you. Even if they lose, others will come until they drown you. If we don't have you, we will make you live in the shadow of fear forever," the man said, trying to use fear on Shisui, but the teenager laughed.
"No, I will come at you directly," Shisui said, taking the initiative to attack as he saw Zuko do the same, using his blood-stained spear as a defense against the various attacks of the Dai Li.
This time he did not slip, he had to conserve the available water, even if he was surrounded by the water he could manipulate it and had a super-compressed water drop floating around him, there was no reason to waste it.
That was the downside of Waterbenders, the lack of an element you could control unless you were in certain places. Although water could be obtained in many ways in places without it, Shisui had constructed his fighting style so that he did not need large amounts of it.
A Dai Li emulated him and created a stone spear to attack him directly, while his partner and leader used other methods of attack. Barbed walls on the sides threatened to close in around him, but he was not afraid and even laughed.
Shisui felt it, he was integrating the experience of his past life into his new self, those dormant instincts, that bloodlust independent of whatever had messed up the mind of humanity in his old life, those alert instincts.
For the first time in this world, he felt the tingle of imminent mortal danger, it wasn't bullets flying at him, it wasn't explosives, it wasn't people doused in gasoline catching fire as he innocently saved them.
But there he was, letting go a little of the savagery he had held in check. He was not mad like in his past life, but every human being is a wild madman deep inside.
Even though the humans of this world had nothing to do with the humans of his past life, that savagery was inherent in the concept of 'humanity', and it was now coming out in him.
The leader Dai Li seemed to notice something when Shisui simply let the rock spear cut into his arm, the teenager ignoring the blood spurting from his limb and running to one of the walls, using his feet to scale it, using the spikes for support.
Motes of chi cushioned the damage he would otherwise take, and since he was high up, he leaped into the air and spun his body. The ice spear in his hand began to rotate and his palms turned red from the friction, but he didn't care, he just focused on the Dai Li who had injured him.
"Die!" The ice spear shot out at such a speed that it would surely have broken the speed of sound if it had enough distance.
Shisui used water control to spin the weapon and send it flying at Dai Li, who was unable to defend himself in time due to the water strands holding his legs. The icy projectile went through an earthen wall raised by the rush and lost power, but pierced the Dai Li's abdomen.
With several gestures of a Shisui falling from the air, spikes of ice erupted from the enemy's body as the ice spear was consumed and spread throughout his being.
Such a brutal act caused the Dai Li leader to reevaluate Shisui, noticing in the boy's golden eyes something he also had and was aware of, chaos, there was chaos in those eyes.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! You're just like me, Sage Shisui!" the Dai Li leader shouted as he kicked the ground, creating a platform of earth that slid towards Shisui.
"No, I'm just taking back what's mine, you're crazy, I'm just making plans," Shisui denied as he decompressed the water from the drop floating around him, turning it into hot steam.
"Plans? These eyes don't lie! You feel it, don't you? The desire to assert yourself over everything and everyone, the desire for greatness, the desire to destroy, to control, to shape other people's minds" The Dai Li leader raised a rock wall to protect himself from the hot steam, but it exploded and shattered everything, sending shards of stone flying everywhere.
"No, I just remembered how to effectively kill you," Shisui did not explain the context of his words, but the remaining water vapor floating around the Dai Li leader turned into chunks of ice, and snow.
The snow enveloped the man, sending him abruptly into a cold environment, while the other Dai Li threw stone projectiles in the shape of stalactites at Shisui, it was no longer a game of catch, but a game of kill.
Shisui transformed the steam near him into a wall of ice to defend himself before using his hand to block the kick of the enemy closest to him. But with a gesture, the cold snow turned into hot steam and injured Dai Li.
"Skilled, very skilled, but you cannot stop me, Sage Shisui!" Even with his skin blistered, the Dai Li leader continued to deliver melee attacks on Shisui, his hands and feet covered in sharp-edged stones that he used to inflict minor cuts on Shisui.
The Fire Nation's soil was volcanic and there was a lot of obsidian, so Dai Li's fists were partially dark and glassy in texture, but the pain or his blood didn't matter to Shisui.
He felt it, the experience and strength of this man, plus the bullying attacks of the other Dai Li. They truly deserved to be Ba Sing Se's secret police. But the pressure only made Shisui explode stronger at the right time.
Like high-pressure steam, he used it to create an explosion that pushed the Dai Li leader away from him. The man flew away but was caught by his henchman's stone hand.
The man didn't care about his burned skin, his broken bones, the blood pouring out of his mouth from internal injuries, he didn't even care about his target. No, he wanted to see how far he could push Shisui, how the teenager would explode.
"It's been a long time since I felt so comfortable, Sage Shisui. I never expected to have to resort to this, but you have pushed me over the edge, boy. Let me show you what I have gained from training and a little inspiration from the Firebenders" The man turned away from his henchman and waved his hands, the earth around him moving as usual, but slowly taking on a reddish hue.
"Many fools believe that this sub-control requires firebender and earthbender parents, but no, Sage Shisui, it is only a rare way to control the earth, only if you are connected enough to this element and understand its subtlety can you access it," waves of magma surrounded the man, who waved his arms like an orchestral maestro.
"There are records of lava masters and metal masters in the history of Ba Sing Se. I don't know about metal control, but lava? I was inspired by the way Avatar Roku died trying to defend this land from a volcanic eruption, it was a very solid thing almost a century ago, did you know that?" the Dai Li leader looked at Shisui with his green eyes and a mad smile appeared on his face.
"Sage Shisui, can you handle lava? You grew up among Firebenders, you can handle this little bit of heat," the man said, sending a wave of hot magma toward Shisui, who jumped backward and almost reached the edge of the cliff.
He was a bit surprised to see this ability here, but he was not afraid, on the contrary, he wanted to test himself. Besides, there was something strange about this whole situation, as if it was background noise, and he wanted to end the fight soon, so the best way was to fight head-on.
Shisui breathed, mobilizing his chi in his body at maximum power, even though it was risky, he was multitasking right now and any mistake could put him in grave danger, but it was this feeling of being on the edge of danger that made him integrate many things in his mind.
His posture changed, without any obvious style of control, he just seemed to stand there, but his bumpy posture alerted the leader of Dai Li, for some reason, Shisui had become much more dangerous to his senses, so he didn't want to waste any more time.
Facing the incoming lava wave, Shisui controlled the two drops of compressed water he held close to his body and released them. Above his head, something appeared that could be mistaken for a large ocean due to the amount of water, but it was only an illusion.
Shisui threw all the water as a waterfall, the impact force of his attack stopped the lava, the water evaporated quickly followed by a loud screeching sound, but the resulting steam was quickly controlled by him and compressed into a spear that he threw at that stalker Dai Li.
Even though he erected a stone wall to protect himself, the steam spear exploded it, revealing someone he hadn't expected, Shisui. Shisui had used the mist created by his attack to slip in front of this enemy and attack with a water snake on his arm.
He had molded a water snake into his limb that quickly slithered over the Dai Li and wrapped itself around its prey like a python, impeding its movements.
Shisui clenched his left fist, motes of chi flashing, he might not have mastered martial arts like Ty Lee, who was an expert at it, but he knew how to strike, and with the residual steam around him, he enhanced his attack.
A cloud of steam-propelled his arm like a piston, and the enhancement of chi allowed him to hear the crack of broken bones as his fist struck Dai Li's nose, sending it crashing into his face.
The remaining water in the area, whether it was liquid, solid, or gaseous, transformed into a thick cloud that covered Shisui before spilling forward like a huge wave, defending himself from a lava shuriken flying in his direction.
"Getting distracted while fighting me is not good, Sage Shisui," a stone spike erupted beneath Shisui at the Dai Li leader's hand, slightly wounding the boy's leg as he jumped to avoid it.
"I suppose so, but answer me something, what exactly are you among the Dai Li?" Shisui's question seemed to come out of nowhere, and as he used water to close the bleeding wound, his golden eyes looked at the man who controlled the lava as a new limb.
"I am your supreme leader! I'd like to say that, but I'm only responsible for certain things, you know, making certain stubborn people more obedient, but I got bored. Too easy, too boring, and then you came into my world, Sage Shisui.
Imagine controlling a sage like you, making him loyal to the kingdom, no, to me, yes, wasn't that the plan? Practice on you, and when the rumored and longed-for Avatar appears, I'll get some practice with hard targets," The man had never bothered to be subtle about his intentions, so he stated them openly.
His madness was so great that the lava he controlled covered the body of his subordinate, the one Shisui had struck a short time ago and who was still alive. The man's cries of pain made the Dai Li leader take a deep breath, as if in ecstasy.
"Haven't you thought about it? Come on, I've tried everything, the fear side, the sexual side, you're unusually mature for a 14-year-old who didn't fall because of hormones.
I tried the subtle side, the idealistic side. What do you want from me? Oh, you want what's mine? You want what is mine? You want to take what's mine!" the man shouted wildly, nonsensical, incoherent ramblings that showed his growing madness.
Shisui noticed something extremely peculiar about Dai Li's aura, something writhing inside him, tugging at the colors of his aura, and when he concentrated to the point where drops of blood dripped from his nose, he saw something, something that chilled his blood to the core.
A pair of eyes with vertical red pupils, black claws holding something, and a cat-like body crouched on the 'inside' of the man. As if noticing his gaze, that being looked back at Shisui, an exaggerated expression appeared on its feline face.
"Worthy of a sage who attracted Avatars..." another voice came from the man, his body now visibly showing body mutations, cat whiskers, the same red eyes, and a body full of black lines radiating dark energy.
"It's not time yet, but you are a threat to the next Harmonic Convergence, but this flesh vehicle doesn't make much sense anymore, he really thought he could trap you deep in the Fire Nation, what an imbecile," the spirit spoke through the man, his movements becoming more and more rigid, but the lava he was manipulating had become a large cat made of molten stone.
In front of Shisui stood this huge construct of hot magma, distorting the air with its very presence, but its golden eyes remained fixed on the possessed man, and an emotion grew within it, rage.
Pure rage, pure rage, pure rage. Every emotion or feeling associated with those three words filled Shisui's mind. He hated what he saw, mind control irritated him, but possession? Oh no, possession was his big NO in this life and the past.
As if a button had been pressed, all the fighting stopped as everyone fighting or watching the fights looked at Shisui who had gently raised his hands in the air.
The distant trees, bushes, flowers, and even some clouds near the cliff all leaned toward Shisui. The water in them was drawn to his person.
As Shisui's nose bled from the mental effort it took to keep his gift active at maximum power and concentration, his body moved smoothly, mimicking the waves of the sea.
His chi path was burning, his body's nutrients were being consumed, and his body was visibly shrinking due to the loss of flesh, but he was using everything he had to mobilize every ounce of his power for one purpose.
To extinguish what lay before him. With a great roar, the water surrounding Shisui was transformed into the appearance of a gigantic oriental dragon. This appearance had a meaning, and if you saw the glowing blue eyes of this dragon, you would notice that it seemed to have some sentience.
"Truly a danger. You are not the Avatar, but you have gone to this extreme with your waterbending, the likes of which have not been seen in nearly a century. The war between humans prevented humans from reaching this point, but you have, Sage Shisui, fortunately, my master asked me to eliminate you," the possessed man said before hurling the lava cat at Shisui.
'This hurts, it hurts too much, I feel like I won't even be able to walk for weeks after this, but... this is the best I can do,' Shisui thought as his special vision became more and more abstract, in front of him there was just a cluster of disgusting colors that he had to clean up.
"This is very juvenile, but... Chaos Water Dragon!" Shisui shouted before pushing the water dragon against the large lava cat, causing the two elemental constructs to collide, softening the entire cliff and even causing cracks to appear.
'To think that imitating beings with your element was the next step, how interesting, what a strange development. Azula has this weird fuzzy hawk that comes out when she attacks.
What would Petra have, or Zuko? If it's Aang, a flying bison, what about Katara, a penguin? Haha... Why am I thinking so much? This is no time for fantasies, you have to erase this and clean this up. There were no notes about this in Mom's diary, Mom... I have to do more research on her if I can.
But... What if I just imitate what Korra did? Just wave my arms around like I'm dancing,' Shisui finished the thought before he staggered, but a pair of hands caught him and kept him from falling.
'I have nutritional potions, so whatever overload I have, I just have to take them, then... let's wave our arms' Shisui, dizzy and seeing nothing but many indistinguishable colors in his eyes, gently waved his arms in a pattern he had never tried before.
The competition between the water dragon and the lava cat continued, but Shisui's creation slowly glowed with golden light, alarming the spirit possessing the man.
His form was above the cat, controlling its actions, so he was engulfed in the light emanating from the dragon as it enveloped his lava construct like a great snake.
"What are you doing, stop!" the spirit tried to use earthbending through the body it possessed, but the spikes or projectiles were knocked down by Petra or Zuko while Azula kept Shisui standing with her hands.
They had finished their battles, taking advantage of the distraction of their enemies, and quickly went to help, but they ran into a situation they had never expected.
Under the purifying light given off by the dragon, they could see the being that inhabited the man's body and knew instinctively that it was a spirit. Add to the mutations, and it was a classic case of possession, as recorded and taught in school.
"Shisui, he..." Zuko said as he clenched the almost corrupted sword in his hand, he hadn't expected that there were spirits involved, those beings were really dangerous for humans.
"Shisui seems to be helping him," Ty Lee said, noticing that the man seemed to return to his normal form, with no obvious body mutations.
A large amount of black energy visible to the naked eye erupted from the man's body, the lava construct quickly melting and cooling. Soon, an ethereal-looking cat separated from the man and looked around in awe, it was more than obvious that the evil in it was gone.
It was a small orange cat with green eyes that looked at the group of children with a very human expression of fear, but the others ignored it and watched as the water dragon exploded and covered them all.
"Shisui, are you okay?" asked Azula to a pale Shisui lying in her arms.
The young woman's almost worried face made Shisui, who could now see the real world, smile. With the only strength he had left, he brought his face close to Azula's as if to tell her something.
Suddenly, Azula's pupils dilated visibly as she felt the warm touch on her lips. By the time she reacted, Shisui was unconscious on the floor after giving her a soft kiss.
"Azula and Shisui kissed, they'll get married, they'll live happily ever after~" sang Ty Lee, who came out of nowhere and looked at her friend with a small smile on her face.
Azula wanted to complain, but when she saw the bloody knuckles and flayed skin on her childhood friend's hands, the princess remained silent. She looked at the others, except for Mai, who had no visible wound from her fighting style, her older brother and Petra were bruised.
Zuko had cuts on his body and a nasty burn on his shoulder, while Petra seemed to have a broken arm as well as cuts on her face, she even had black eyes and a broken nose.
When Shisui awoke, he realized that he was in his dimly lit room, his chi seemed exhausted but pulsating with life, something he noticed only on a full moon.
In his arm was a needle connected to a strange serum, no doubt something of his creation, and only Azula was curious enough to enter her lab enough to know what he had in there.
His body ached, he seemed to be in hot springs. He knew he had overdone it, he could even feel that he would need at least a month of reconditioning to get back to 100%, but inside he knew it was worth it.
When he took advantage of the solitude he had to meditate, he noticed that he could dodge another world that overlapped the real world much better, he couldn't enter it, but it seemed much clearer to him than before.
"Meow" a meow brought him out of his meditation and he saw it, an orange cat had jumped on his body and was staring at him.
"Oh no, an orange cat," Shisui muttered, and the cat looked annoyed at his words, but it got off his body.
Shisui watched as the cat went through the wall, and soon after, the door to his room opened, revealing Azula, who was carrying the spirit as if it were just another pet.
Azula approached him and stared at him. Shisui noticed that the girl seemed to be crying for a long time, and out of instinct, he made a joke.
"Don't tell me it's been 10 years?" Shisui asked with a smile on his parched lips, but Azula just looked at him as she stroked the cat in her arms.
"Aren't you going to say anything? Hello?" Shisui realized that this was no time for jokes and although he wanted to sit down, his weak body wouldn't let him.
"I love you" Shisui was always one to lash out unexpectedly, but seeing Azula's lack of reaction, he expressed the deepest feelings in his heart without hesitation.
A cat flew out while meowing loudly as Azula jumped on Shisui, hugging him tightly and filling his lips and face with many kisses, leaving the boy at a loss for words, especially with the princess' words.
"10 days, you fool! You slept for 10 days after doing that crazy thing! Against stupid rookies! They weren't even important people in the Dai Li, they were just rejected boys!" Azula sobbed a little as she let her head rest on Shisui's chest, who didn't know how to react.
"They sent a letter to my father 'apologizing' for the unplanned attack and that they hoped it wouldn't sour relations between us and Ba Sing Se. But... the war has resumed, I won't see you for two years, you'll be back in a heightened conflict where anything can happen.
The spirits want to kill you, for sure Dai Li won't leave alone, who knows if the Northern Water Tribe will send people to hunt you too, so you joke and say you love me after almost dying of exhaustion?" Azula began to blurt out her grievances against Shisui's chest, which she had filled with tears.
"Not only have you ignored me for so long, but you tell me you love me out of the blue, do you love me, Shisui? Or are you just saying that to calm me down? Do you only want to marry me because Grandpa forced you to? Answer me, you fool," Azula looked up and kissed Shisui again before resting her golden eyes on his.
"I can't control my emotions, I burned too many that day, and now I'm like a broken dam, a sea of tears, Shisui, say something, I'm going crazy," the grieving princess murmured before Shisui put his hand on her head.
"You fool, is your concern for me so great that you haven't meditated? Sleep first..." he advised her, knowing that Azula's strange attitude was due to the disadvantages of the technique she was using.
Everything has a price, Shisui's was falling into bed and needing to improve her physique for a while, Azula's was an emotional imbalance due to burning out some of her emotions, but it was easily solved, meditating.
But she had barely slept and worrying about Shisui made her lose control of her emotions, add to that the hormones of puberty and we have this result.
Azula burst out laughing before she kissed Shisui on the cheek and lay down next to him, not wanting to leave the boy's side until he had to go to the front to fight.
"Do you love me?" she asked quietly.
"Yes," Shisui replied.
"You're not lying to me?" Azula asked in her sleepy voice.
"I don't lie to you, I'm as sure as the water is clear," Shisui replied, and Azula took a while to continue speaking, this time with a yawn.
"But your water sparkles sometimes, that's not clear water," she asked hesitantly, but Shisui turned around with difficulty, even though his body ached from the movement, and hugged her.
"You say a lot of confusing things," he said, but Azula laughed.
"You used to do the same thing when we were little, silly ShiShi..." Eventually, Azula fell asleep, while Shisui had only one thing on his mind.
'How heavy was I as a child?'
From that day on, the dynamic between them changed in a subtle way, they were more open with their emotions and the way they treated each other, even if it was limited to simple kisses or holding hands, was enough.
Azula solved her emotional problems quickly, even realizing that her emotions were now much easier to dominate and control, which could be described as a blessing in disguise, or so Shisui told her while laughing at a joke that only he understood.
Zuko had a pretty cool burn scar that was fortunately gone from his face. Shisui also helped remove the marks on Petra's face and Ty Lee's hands with one of the scar ointments he had in his lab.
Azulon first teased Shisui about how well he had started to get along with his granddaughter in the last few days, also to talk to her straightforwardly about the situation that had led to the fight that day.
Kiyi visited Shisui with sweets, Ursa cut his hair to give him a new hairstyle, Lu Ten gave him a forged spear, and Iroh gave him tea made from an interesting herb he found in an Earth Kingdom caravan.
Mai gave him a painting of what happened that day when he purified the spirit cat they named Musu. Ozai even came up to him while he was recovering and thanked him; he, a man who had always been a bit uncomfortable with Shisui, thanked him.
Lee-Lee became part of Azula's entourage for some reason, apparently impressed by the princess that day. Stories of what happened that day were also told and spread throughout the world.
Of course, the rest of the world did not take kindly to the Fire Nation resuming their military campaign, but they were fully focused on Ba Sing Se. They knew it would be difficult to breach the walls of that capital, but they wanted to make them pay the price.
They only attacked Ba Sing Se, the other cities of the Earth Kingdom were relatively safe, this was, as said, an attack in retaliation for the attack committed by the Dai Li, although those attackers were 'repulsed', the one who led the attack made a lot of the group, that was enough.
At the end of the time set for his recovery, when Shisui confirmed that he was finally free of after-effects, he prepared. Along with Zuko and many other young men of the Fire Nation, they went to the place where soldiers were recruited.
It was from this place that the legendary stories of those who fought that day began.
--------------
AN: Long chapter wooo! Soon is the time skip and a few side stories before the canon. I will try to do something good with Shisui, the crew, and Aang before his awake. When the canon starts, all characters will be adults, even Aang.
And yes, If you wanna read something good, watch my Dragon Ball Fanfic, or my original novel! In my profile, wink wink. Ok, no more spam.
6.6k colecctions! WOooooooo!!