Avatar: Chaos Water

AN: Long chapter, 4.8k words. Please enjoy and read the last AN at the end.

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The full moon rose high above the night, barely covered by a few clouds that turned dark and threatened to rain in a few hours, or so Shisui could tell with his sensitivity to his element. 

"A perfect night," the boy muttered, dressed completely in black, maybe to camouflage himself in the dark, or maybe he liked the color. 

He could feel it inside of him, his chi being pulled by the great star in the sky just like the tides were affected by it, giving him a pretty good boost in quality and quantity.

Even if it was temporary, this kind of boost was what he wanted for what he was going to do tonight. With that, he quickly left the camp where most of the Fire Nation army was. 

The war had changed Shisui quite a bit, his movements were much more focused and minimalistic when he moved, and there was hardly any movement in the rest of his body, all to conserve the most energy. 

Such a fierce fight did not require a great display of strength, but rather precision, something he had tried to train before, but the roughness of fighting in war and the pressure to survive had brought him to this point. 

When he was sure that there were no hidden guards or anyone near him, Shisui took a deep breath of the night air, letting it intoxicate him for a moment before his eyes glowed brightly. 

His body moved, especially his arms, but no water reacted to his attempts, because that was not what he wanted to bend, at least not directly. 

His attention was focused on that subtle trace, barely perceptible to many waterbenders, but with the clarity the moon brought to their abilities, Shisui could easily pick it up. 

From a burrow a few meters away, a small brown figure appeared. A hare that seemed to wriggle unnaturally at Shisui's movements. 

"Too crude, I don't want to kill with it, not now," Shisui said as he gently eased his movements, but he could feel it, the inherent resistance of every living thing to be messed with.

Blood-bending was not as easy as one might think. First, you had to have a good sensitivity to your element, but not only that but also to the spirit world. 

Why was that? It probably had to do with the general consideration that blood was life, and while that might be true in science, it had more meaning in the mystical aspect. 

He was trying to bend not only the blood of someone else's body, but their "life," so to speak, and that was why it was so difficult, and that was why there was a phenomenon that Shisui called "resistance to manipulation. 

Living beings didn't like it when someone played with their bodies as they pleased, who knew? However, since his arrival on the battlefield, Shisui did not stop practicing this skill. 

He didn't want to kill or block elemental bending, those were very minor uses of blood-bending for Shisui. No, what he wanted was to 'guide' the bodies of living creatures, following the philosophy of the Waterbenders. 

'Flow'. Shisui wanted to reach for something more, to make life itself flow in his hands like water, that was why he didn't like the rigid movements of the hare, it wasn't flowing, it was just bending blood like many others in the canon, useful no doubt, but not what he was aiming for. 

"What if...?" Shisui sent out motes of chi that landed on the hare, all imprinted with his intention not to harm it, as if to convince the animal to be moved by Shisui's designs for a few moments. 

Remarkably, the animal's resistance decreased, allowing Shisui to try actions that would otherwise seem complicated, such as making the hare act like a normal animal not bending by him. 

"HAHAHA! Imagine the potential of bending animals," Shisui laughed at his new achievement, feeling that he had understood much more about the true nature of his element. 

Water was life, every organism needed water to survive, and the realization of this made the boy close his eyes, releasing the bending of the rabbit that ran away, but Shisui did not need it.

At the age of 18, Shisui had already learned everything he needed to know about this element. Water, ice, steam, he could bend them. He could raise the temperature of water, make its consistency resemble that of a solid or a jelly, compress steam, and extract water from plants and clouds.

Even though extracting water from the air was difficult for him because he had to concentrate on the small droplets of this element in the environment, he could do it. He could bend the blood of creatures during the full moon, but more importantly, he could allow a rabbit to do what he wanted, even if only for a moment, by letting his life flow as he wished. 

Shisui's attention shifted to his blood, how it flowed through his bloodstream, how it carried oxygen and nutrients throughout his body, how it was slowly generated from his spine, how it was driven by his heart at an incredible pressure.

Shisui felt the flow of his life, not the flow of chi, but his life directly. Maybe he could not do this with humans or other creatures at the moment, but he could see his status much better. 

He saw the life he had left, 90 years, it seemed he would be a long-lived man, he saw how subtly something escaped from his body. Then he directed his chi under his skin, all over his body, sealing his entire body. 

'No, not good,' Shisui muttered as he saw that he had only created a subcutaneous defense, something he had struggled to do after an Earthbender stabbed him in the abdomen two years ago. 

Thoughtfully, he noted how his chi was generated by his own life, giving him a broader perspective of "change," a concept that water also possessed. But was it necessary? He didn't want to trade life for energy and doubted it was possible to do anything the other way around. 

Black clouds covered the entire sky, but the moonlight somehow managed to fall on his head, and when the first drop of rain fell on his head, the coldness of it was like a shock to him. 

"Just let it flow, just let it change, just let it be," Shisui murmured, and as if responding to the small inspiration he had, his chi flowed into his heart, out of the usual channels of chi.

His chi then began to be pumped along with his blood, being an energy of an ethereal nature, it took up no real space, so to speak, so his blood was not hindered in any way. 

His blood and energy now shared the same path, and as if he was much closer to the source, his chi slowly changed, maybe just a notch, but it was a very noticeable difference from before.

Shisui saw his life expectancy increase by a year, something that made him smile because he was simply letting his life flow much further than it could without wearing out. 

From what he knew of the four elements, Shisui felt that any master could achieve the same as he did by understanding the vital aspect of his element. Each element shared concepts such as life, even fire, the most destructive, could create life and even heal. 

Had he attained immortality? No, mortality was part of water, of the elements in general. All the elements could also represent death, even earth, or haven't you heard of the radioactive elements in earth minerals?

I was just following the normal flow of things, and it was natural to live longer as long as you took good care of yourself or lived in a perfect environment. That was what Shisui had been driving in his body with his actions. 

Besides, maybe he could try to become a spirit. It was said that humans had the potential to become spirits but would die before achieving that goal, and he liked the idea, especially if he could continue to see the interesting things in this world.

This was different from the two supposed ways to become immortal discovered in the Avatar world, one of which was rearranging the minute aspects of your body to "stagnate" it over time, while the other method seemed to require an Avatar's chi to gain immortality.

What Shisui was doing was essentially allowing something separate to coexist, like yin and yang. Life and chi were two sides of the same coin, and what he was doing was bringing them together. 

Taking advantage of the fact that he was probably in this state and would have to grope more to achieve it permanently in the future, Shisui wasted no time and began to move his body.

Slowly, Shisui's body began to glow as the water covering his body responded to his bending. He was healing, healing in the most profound way he could with his new state. 

The invisible wounds left by the arduous battle, the scars on his body, the dead or defective cells, and even small natural imperfections on his skin such as acne were gradually removed while he remained in this state. 

Not only that, the water also turned a brilliant gold, and black energy motes emerged from his body. He was purifying himself, for whether he wanted to or not, he had been contaminated by the murderous intent and death breath of war, as he could tell by looking at his aura.

But only today could he find a way to do this feat, and when he finished, he knew that it was only a short time before dawn, but his body was in excellent condition. 

He felt even a bit stronger, his mind was clear, and he felt that he could gain many benefits by meditating, but that would be for another day because now he was going to start a skirmish and he had to be a part of it. 

He dried his clothes and made his way to the camp. Arriving at his tent, he took a spear with a blue shaft and black tip, carved with the Fire Nation emblem. He also put on his weapon, a special musket created by Petra. 

Although he would have preferred a more 'modern' weapon, the spark he had created was enough and he wanted to see how things would develop naturally. Then an alarm sounded, indicating that Ba Sing Se soldiers were about to attack. 

Strangely, it was always like that. They were the ones who attacked the camp every few days, and rarely did the Fire Nation launch an attack of their own. It was as if they wanted to drive them out of their territory, which made sense if you asked, but there was always something strange about it. 

The battle began as it had before, with huge granite columns falling from the sky like massive hammers, but it was more of an intimidation and delaying tactic than an effective attack. Although it was different this time, Shisui could sense that there was 'life' in those pillars. 

"Don't tell me..." Shisui mumbled a bit surprised about the thought that suddenly popped into his head. 

Then he activated his gift, which he had trained since his childhood to not only consume little energy but also to not cause too many changes in his temperament. That's why he used it at times when it wasn't necessary, but it was a way to train himself. 

He saw several colorful auras inside the granite pillar and began to curse the Earthbenders' ingenious tactics. He had never expected to see something so strange and absurd.

Airborne troops from the Earth Kingdom? Yes, they were a fantasy version of them. And under the usual veneer of a normal attack, it meant one thing: this tactic had been planned a long, long time ago and was now being implemented for greater effect. 

Shisui wasted no time, his black clothing was recognizable and the people around him paid attention to him for a very good reason, they were under his command.

"As Lieutenant, I order the firebenders to attack those pillars, NOW!" Shisui shouted his order, and although strange, the men under his command did the same. 

Shouts rang out from the hot rock and suddenly, the pillar opened. Men in green armor from the Earth Kingdom poured out, some spewing steam and showing pained expressions, others seeming unaffected. 

"ENEMY ATTACK!" Shisui shouted, assuming a charging posture before lunging at the enemy with his spear at the ready. 

Four drops of super-concentrated water began to float around him, and together with his usual clothing, the enemies were able to recognize him. Despite the pain, the training of these men allowed them to react in time and create irregular, particularly smooth walls of earth.

Since Shisui had arrived on the battlefield, he had been conspicuous together with Zuko, so countermeasures to his usual tactics soon emerged, such as jumping between the Earthbender walls whenever he could. 

Shisui didn't mind, it was this pressure that he wanted to improve, that allowed him to create ways to shatter stone walls with relative ease. With his free hand, he broke the surface tension on one of the water droplets and shot out a very thin jet of water.

This jet was like a sharp sword on a piece of paper, cutting through the walls and exposing the enemies behind, who were not expecting such a development. Shisui also had a few things that he did not use to surprise his enemies as much as they surprised him. 

"MUSKETEERS SQUAD, ON MY SIGNAL!" Shisui raised his left hand and clenched it into a fist. 

Several soldiers were on their knees, weapons at the ready, firing at the exposed soldiers. Blood flew as they were mowed down. Even though their actual armor was extra thick in vulnerable areas such as the torso or head, it was inefficient to cover their limbs with armor. 

The musketeers specifically targeted those exposed limbs, it was difficult, but among so many shots, some would hit. Shisui then jumped over the stone rubble and landed heavily on one of the enemies. 

A water serpent followed his arm and suddenly transformed into an ice needle that pierced the space between the torso armor and the helmet, right through the neck. 

His men quickly surrounded the incapacitated Earthbenders, thrusting their weapons into the gaps in their protection and ending their lives. Shisui looked at the blood on the ground and knew he could manipulate it, but only because it was exposed to the air, with no life to resist. 

Would he do it? Not now, but under his bending, the blood plunged into the ground and a speck of chi emerged from it, plunging deep into the soil. At the very least, strong plants would grow here in the future. 

The Earth Kingdom's tactics seemed to have served them well, as one could hear the desperate cries of many lieutenants or commanders giving hoarse orders to the enemies who attacked unexpectedly. 

In the distance, Shisui even saw a huge mountain collapse on the Fire Nation wagons, turning them into metallic mush. Then he saw it, a blue Fire Falcon on the left flank slammed into one of the granite pillars, partially melting it. 

"Azula is pissed," Shisui said with a smile before turning serious, "this was just an initiated attack, most of the enemies were already on their way.

It was great to see the Earthbenders sliding on large blocks of dirt, one pushing them forward while others smoothed the path to be traveled, reducing friction or bumps. 

They also used the dust cloud to not only blind their enemies but also to prevent the use of firebending. No one wanted to die foolishly from a dust explosion, not when they sometimes mixed gunpowder into it.

Gunpowder was not something exclusive to the Fire Nation, only that the Fire Nation actually made the compound with higher quality, but the Earth Kingdom also had their formulas, and the way they used them was clever, to say the least. 

Because of the Fire Nation's firearms and the technological effort to imitate them, the first enlightened people were born, who decided that if gunpowder was a compound made from materials found in the Earth, why couldn't an Earthbender manipulate gunpowder?

Thus was born the strangest sub-bending of the war, gunpowder-bending became the Earthbenders' answer to the Fire Nation. In addition, there were rumors that the waterbenders of the northern tribes had experimented with potatoes and obtained a compound similar to water, but highly flammable.

Shisui did not know how the situation had become so strange, but he was pleased with the imagination of others, even if it was used against him. But now, the battle was about to enter its fiercest phase. 

Thousands of rock projectiles were fired at them, but the firebenders created overlapping walls of fire with some consistency, stopping the attacks, and so the real conflict began. 

Bullets flew from the Fire Nation, while time-lapse gunpowder came from the Ba Sing Se soldiers. The fighting was terrible and chaotic, but Shisui moved among the combatants like a water snake.

Always with his people and never separating from the army, the 'brave' did not live long, it was always best to stay with your own as they could protect you. As mentioned before, using a lot of power was not optimal except in certain necessary situations. 

Thus, Shisui was limited to fighting with his blood-stained spear, creating pressurized water from the super-concentrated droplets floating around him, or firing an occasional bullet with his musket. 

Perhaps it was because of the healing and purification he'd gone through a few hours ago, but Shisui noticed that his stamina lasted much longer, and he didn't feel as tired as he should after an hour of battle. 

As the sun reached its peak above them, the Earth Kingdom's offensive was waning, while the Firebenders' momentum was increasing.

The sun was the source of the firebenders' power, and they were much stronger at noon. Especially the powerful firebenders, like a certain princess who created a huge wave of blue flames that consumed two enemies in front of Shisui. 

"ShiShi, I'm angry!" shouted Azula, who was covered in sweat and blood and had an angry expression on her face. 

"They killed a tenth of me! That stupid column had crystals that prevented the heat signature of those bastards from reaching me, they were preparing to attack me, ShiShi and I didn't like that!" Azula complained as she caught her breath, and then she noticed something strange about Shisui.

Why did he look more handsome than before? Although Azula could only see part of Shisui's face because of his black helmet, her instincts didn't fail her, even the boy looked taller than before. 

"I'll tell you everything, I found out something good last night," Shisui said, making Azula smile and her bad mood was gone.

The relationship between the two had progressed quite a bit, and Shisui had no reason to hide his training or the attempts he made every full moon, even inspiring the princess to further explore her flames.

Though her sense of heat was not her own, Zuko's, Azula had studied fire-related mysticism and made up for much of the lost time in that area through her conversations with her Uncle Iroh.

Azula even learned to heal with her flames, something she never expected to do, preferring more powerful things, but having such an ability confirmed to the princess that she was on the right path.

Petra, for example, also learned to heal with Earth, and Mai and Ty Lee even explored the use of Chi for various purposes much more deeply.

Imagine Shisui's surprise when he saw Ty Lee juggling balls of chi, or Mai creating chi strings to control her assassination tools. 

No one was falling behind, the group was making progress, and in a way, Shisui felt a little sorry for Aang, though when he thought about it, he had a strange feeling.

'Maybe Aang won't be that far behind,' he thought, though he didn't know why.

Shisui and Azula pushed the Ba Sing soldiers, and he joined the rest of the Fire Nation army, leading them back to their heavily guarded walls. 

Shisui used his gift to see the aura of the wall, and the sight always fascinated him. There were many colors produced by the auras of all who lived within the great city, but the wall itself was the most interesting thing. 

For some strange reason, the wall itself seemed to produce its aura, he didn't know the exact reason, but considering certain philosophical ideas, he had some ideas. 

Probably, the centuries of people's devotion had caused the wall to gradually develop sensitivity. The passage of time and the influence of spiritual phenomena or people in the city had caused thoughts to appear on the wall. 

Or, stranger still, since everything had chi, since everything was chi, perhaps the wall became a spirit. Whatever the reason, it only made the siege of Ba Sing Se more of a tug-of-war between nations than an actual attempt to accomplish anything. 

Shisui wouldn't be surprised if it was the blood spilled on the walls that brought it to life since strange things always happened in places where there was a lot of death. 

Back at the camp, the group of friends gathered around a campfire, and as Shisui stirred the broth that was being prepared, he told the others of his findings. 

"Wait... if I let you bend the flow of my life, will you make me beautiful and tall?" Ty Lee, as usual, found the funny side of the situation and made Shisui almost lose control of the broth he was stirring. 

"What's on your mind?" Shisui asked with genuine curiosity, causing the girl to simply stick her tongue out at him. 

"Don't you know that we girls love beauty so much, look at my sloppy skin! I like to tan, but fighting big men and women all the time doesn't do your skin any good, especially when they use large amounts of powder against you," Ty Lee explained with visible resentment in his voice, but the girls present nodded. 

"Dust gets in uncomfortable places, would that be a Ba Sing Se tactic?" asked Zuko in a joking tone, causing the others to giggle a little. 

"But seriously, isn't bending the blood kind of heretical?" Petra asked the crux of the matter, causing Shisui to ponder for a moment. 

"It's an ability that can cause death, but it can be used to take care of others, all the elements and their sub-bendings are like that. I don't doubt that someone will use Blood-bending to inflict pain, you can see from the endurance of animals how much it hurts them. 

But I don't want to use it for that, why, isn't it better to explore the infinity of these gifts we possess? It used to be thought that only water could heal wounds, but look at Azula and Petra, healing with their elements. 

There used to be a certain sense of superiority of masters over non-masters, but now a non-master can reach heights with chi that are difficult for a master to follow, who must neglect his attention to the advancement of his element. 

Do you know that it took me a year to make chi threads as a Mai? Because I had to focus on training my waterbending, meditating, and practicing with the spear. Whereas Ty Lee mastered that skill in less time.

Zuko learned to detect heat to avoid being ambushed by the Earthbenders again, and Petra imitated those crazy guys' powder-bending. Heretic? 

I do not doubt that it's a controversial and uncomfortable form of bending, I don't like to use it on others, but on myself it's fine," Shisui poured the soup he had prepared, bending the liquid directly into everyone's containers. 

"I missed your lectures," Azula said before starting to eat. 

"They were needed," Mai said before spooning up some soup, blowing it out, and toasting Zuko. 

"The war didn't ruin our wisdom, maybe the purification brought you back, huh?" said Petra jokingly, but Shisui stopped dead in his tracks at that moment. 

"I think so, the battle and death affected me more than I thought. Does purification have a profound effect on the human psyche? Fascinating, it should..." Just as Shisui was mumbling something, a soup spoon appeared in front of him.

Azula had offered it to him, so Shisui did not hesitate and opened his mouth. The ideas and experiments had to wait, he wanted to enjoy this night with his friends because he had a strange feeling that he would spend a lot of time away from them for some reason. 

Just as Shisui decided to meditate that night to calm down and leave this strange thought behind, he felt a profound change in everything around him and even in himself. 

Time seemed to stand still and the 'door' to another world opened for him, in a trance he remembered his whole life in reverse, in great detail. Until he came to his time as a baby and saw his mother's face, happy to have given birth to him. 

Then further back, to his last life, the chaos, the normality, his childhood, his birth, and then another life. Dying young on a battlefield because of something that looked like a Nazi. 

Further back, he was hanged for stealing food because he lived on the streets. Further back, because of the plague. Much further back, because of a bullet fired by a pirate who raided the merchant ship I was on. 

Back, back, back. Then he saw fragmented memories of what seemed to be man's deep admiration for all that they could not control, the sun, the moon, fire, darkness. Further back, when the first hominids had barely come down from the trees.

Long ago, when great creatures ruled the earth I was just a little vermin trying to survive. Way back when life was abundant. He went back, back to the beginning when the concept of life had barely emerged. 

He saw everything back to that infinitely dense point in no space and no time, and much further back, to the thermal death of an earlier universe. 

He went back much faster, much more fleetingly, his mind constantly bombarded by these images he could barely remember or process, but he didn't stop, he never stopped... 

Until he decided to. Then everything rushed forward, in a great flash that reached where he was now, to his current life, Shisui. With a terrible headache, he stood up but was a little startled to see the strange eyes of a young man before him, looking at him curiously. 

"Hello, are you new here, do you want to play a little!!!? Oh, how rude, I should introduce myself. I'm Aang! Who are you?" the boy asked, making Shisui think he might have been drinking cactus juice. 

"What?" he asked before realizing where he was.

Shisui almost cursed at the sight of the exotic and changing atmosphere of the surroundings; he was in the spirit world. Not only that, do you remember the Avatars he met years ago? Well, they were standing in front of him, looking at him.

Some smiled at him, others a frown, but it was Roku who approached him.

"Aang, first we have to get Shisui attuned, it's his first time here," Roku said before he offered his hand to Shisui who stood up. 

"Old man, what's wrong?" asked Shisui with some trepidation, not to be outdone, if you saw all the Avatars in front of you one day, without your element bending and with only your gift from a past life as an advantage, you would be afraid too. 

"Do not worry, young man. You are here for two reasons, you achieved enlightenment on your own and because we lured you here when that happened," replied a female Avatar, Yangchen.

"Enlightenment? I didn't seek it!" exclaimed Shisui, but another Avatar, one in very old Fire Nation robes, shook his head. 

"Enlightenment is not sought or pursued, it comes to you naturally, something you have done and understood that allows you to attain it. You are neither the first nor the last, but you are certainly the youngest," the Avatar said. 

"Besides, it's time for you to return the help we've given you. We need you to train Aang," Kyoshi said, and Shisui already knew at that point that it was the only reasonable explanation...

Some bastard put cactus juice in his soup!

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AN: First of all, I want to thank you for all the comments, either correcting me, making me notice something, giving me details about ATLA that I didn't remember or didn't know (like firearms are canon or at least they came out in a RPG game), giving advice, commenting on jokes, pictures, gifs, even reacting to the weird moments of this fic like Shisui's victory kiss, lol. 

I just wanted to say a few things, like thank you for making this fanfic popular, seriously, it will soon reach 8k collections already, that's surely a tremendous stroke of luck, yes, luck, because I find no reason for it.

Not counting Azula's cleavage on the cover, of course, cof cof. 

By the way, if you see that I delete some reviews, it's because: they're repetitive, they're just emoticons, dots, random letters or words, nothing to add, or even people who don't even bother to ask in the comments, or read on before saying something that I'm sure has an answer for chapters later. 

I don't care if you give me 1 or 2 stars if you give me a real review telling me what I need to improve or what flaws the story has, believe me, I read them and I get to work based on what they tell me and I notice what I really need to do. 

That, and I delete comments that might be offensive or undesirable. The story will have sexy moments at one point (there will be a +18 in that chapter), but that doesn't mean I'm going to allow comments with porn gifs or nsfw pictures! 

Anyway. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! I won't let this story drop and I will finish it, I hope to explore this world a lot and look, our protagonist is now an enlightened one and his first job is to take care of a hyperactive child! The reasons for this will be explained in the next chapter. 

Take care~