Before deciding in full, he wants to re-examine his collection of Avatar novels

A/N: Hello everyone. I have been toying around with the following idea for a while now but the new announcements for the FOUR upcoming Avatar movies and more graphic novels that came out of the 2022 Comic Con got me extra inspired to continue. So, I hope you like this new thread.

Just know that this introduction gets a bit meta as the MC tries to decide what to do. And also, know that most of the extra lore details I briefly mention (aside from part of the multiversal angle) that you may not remember learning on the TV series are actually found in canonical material from the graphic novels, actual books, and the abundance of canon lore that was added for the Avatar roleplaying game. So if you are unfamiliar with some things, that's where they come from, aside from the blatant points of divergence.

Anyway, I hope you have fun and if so, please review!

God's new apprentice frowned for a moment, deciding to slow things down before deciding so that he could consider his options in more detail. The Avatar world was close to his heart, after all. Even if he was going to use that world as a test drive for his new powers, perhaps he would find more enjoyment in his arrival if he gave some more thought to his new identity to come, instead of being impuslive.

So, with that in mind, he walked to his bookshelf and looked at the part where his graphic novels that were set in the eras of Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra series, with stories set during or after their respective shows, were located. Then he tilted his head, thinking long a deep as he pondered the possibilities.

He scratched his chin, thinking. While his first instinct was to arrive during the 100-year War period, have adventures there to save the world while using his powers for awesome things and, of course, to have a LOT of fun with his favorite ladies from the franchise, he felt like he could shake things up to make things new and different on that era. There were after all many brilliant moments, characters, and stories in his collection of canon novels that were set after the show, and now, he had the opportunity to use his powers to mine those plot points to his advantage, ahead of schedule.

Besides, fanfiction writing was one of his favorite hobbies so he had some experience trying to alter plotlines in distinctive ways. But he usually liked to outline his ideas ahead if he could help it and that usually required some deep thought.

So, with that in mind, he traced his fingers through the spines of the graphic novels, taking his time to contemplate some ideas he would like to implement when he arrives in the Avatar world. Then, an idea came to mind and he was struck by inspiration. So, he grabbed one of the shorter but still quite enjoyable novels from his collection that are set after the original show: Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy.

Quickly, he opened the page he was looking for that had Toph realize that despite all the good things that were happening to her ever since she started her successful Metalbending Academy, things were not challenging and entertaining enough for her compared to her time as the Blind Bandit or her adventures before the end of the war.

He stared at the words and examined them. It was not an Iroh-level proverb of wisdom, perhaps but he felt like he could stand to benefit if he paid attention to her line of thought. After all, his new godly powers had the potential to make things way too easy for him. Would he end up becoming bored of that world for once if he had no challenge himself? If everyone knew that he was, say, the mightiest and most capable Avatar that ever lived? Or would he have more fun by shaking things up a bit...perhaps by becoming the power behind the public spotlight himself?

It was then that he remembered an idea he had started developing for a fanfic of his. He ultimately never posted it before but now, now he had a chance to improve on that storyline further and make it even more fun by living through it while he started experimenting with his new powers. And it was with that in mind that he got out his 3 books that centered on popular Avatars from before the time periods of the actual shows and placed their covers in front of him.

He grinned, remembering how much fun he had getting to know the world at such earlier points of the timeline and getting to love the origin stories of these amazing Avatars; Kyoshi in particular but Avatar Yangchen, the last Airbending Avatar before Aang was fantastic too.

And so, with the idea of his past outlines as an inspiration and his new godly powers as the engine, he let his mind wander far and wide, in order to examine the infinite multiverse in search of the right parallel version of the Avatar world across the cosmos that he wanted to pick for his purposes, without even leaving his room just yet.

He found several AUs as his mind learned bits of insights about what made such universes different, depending on the points of divergence across the eras. In one of them, Avatar Roku did kill Fire Lord Sozin to stop him from further military expansions, but the Fire Nation populace became so outraged that they started the 100-year war in his honor when the comet arrived anyway, only this time, the already old Roku was 12 years older and weaker when the Fire Nation enhanced benders came for him and managed to kill him in the outset of the war. This ensured that the next Avatar would be just a newborn when shit hit the fan and definitely not Aang because of the timeline change ensuring the Avatar spirit wasn't outside Roku to merge with him at birth.

In another very different, alternate reality he saw Princess Azula being the one that was banished instead of Prince Zuko, and not for the same reasons as canon, but because, while still a firebending prodigy, she was also inspired by the some of the airbending philosophical teachings that Princess Zeisan, the sister of Sozin had embraced, much to the enmity of her great-grandfather. Thus, she had determined that her family's legacy of conquest needed to stop and that for that, she needed to find the last Airbender and help the Avatar defeat her father. And together with her uncle Iroh, they succeeded in finding him and helping him do just that, with the Princess and the Avatar eventually falling in love along the way.

He raised an eyebrow at that, surprised at such a point of divergence but before long his mind keep wandering, looking for a parallel avatar universe that most aligned with what he wanted to work with before he even introduced himself into the said world's timeline to shake things up.

His mind flashed as different worlds passed through his eyes. In one, Avatar Korra killed herself at the end of S1 before Aang's spirit could restore all the bending abilities she lost aside from airbending, with the depressed but dutiful woman determined to ensure the world would have a fully realized Avatar faster, now that she thought she could no longer be that.

In another, she wasn't poisoned by Zaheer and with her strength intact, ended up helping Kuvira, the one so many had called the Great Uniter, in her 3-year long efforts to reunify the politically shattered Earth Kingdom every step of the way; with her presence helping curb the highly skilled metal bender's darker impulses as their successes grew, with the two of them falling in love in time instead of Korra starting a relationship with Asami eventually.

Shaking his head at such altered timelines but still curious about what he was seeing, he kept looking. He saw a world where Kyoshi was identified as the Avatar early on instead of her friend Yun being thought of as the real Avatar originally, thereby ensuring Kyoshi's original path from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice that was still feared and admired centuries after her **** was different from the original canonical world, which he was now calling Avatar Earth-Prime, based on its central location within the multiversal region that had parallel versions of the Avatar world.

And soon, he was able to see that a huge change from Kyoshi's original journey was that, under these circumstances, she never got to meet Tieguai the Immortal, the ancient earthbender that taught her the extremely rare art that some fans called fleshbending, that had allowed her to prolong her life for more than 200 years after her 2 origin story novels, as explained by the creators of the show.

This ensured that not only would the Era of Avatar Kyoshi would be much shorter than it was in the Prime world, but it also completely altered the number of Avatars that would succeed her before the Harmonic Convergence that originally took place in the second season of Legend of Korra, with countless changes taking place in that world's timeline as a result of there being more and different Avatars in between.

He blinked at the scale of such changes but before his mind could fully focus on a world where the point of divergence involved Avatar Yangchen herself, he stopped in his far-sighted tracks. For just besides the vibrational frequency of that universe there, he finally sensed a parallel world within the infinite multiverse that had the different changes he wanted to explore.

Key among them...a world where the Avatar cycle had been broken due to Aang dying in the Avatar State while still in the iceberg...but one where the Fire Nation hadn't won yet because the Sozin's comet arrives on that world every 106 years instead of every 100 years.

He sighed, all the same, feeling sad for the Aang of that universe. But he knew that the last Airbender would have wanted hope to reignite on his world, and for someone to stop Fire Lord Ozai's plans to burn it down before attempting to rule its ashes.

And thankfully, with his powers, he could provide that kind of hope. And so much more...

So, with that in mind, he thought long and hard about what he wanted to do for a couple of hours, calculating possibilities and potential changes in cause and effect.

And eventually, he smirked in anticipation. He was fine becoming the power behind the scenes instead of the actual Avatar in the spotlight, at least at first. And he was sure his actions would still bring back some much-needed hope to that world, which would be a good thing all on its own.

After all, he now had the means to restore the Avatar cycle in that universe and to become a much-valued member of Team Avatar as he had thought of on more than one occasion. Only this time he wanted to shake things up in the Hundred Year War era, so, he will be reviving a past Avatar through the cover story he had devised instead of just waiting naturally for a new Avatar to be born and grow of age.

And now, he knew exactly which Avatar he wanted to help save the world...and to eventually fuck of course.

But one thing was for sure, he intended to convince the bisexual Avatar Kyoshi to let him recruit some wonderful female characters from the new era she would be revived in, into their team. So he chuckled, sure that they would have a lot of fun together in their adventures.

Finally, once he had made up his mind, he used his powers to enter the seventh parallel world of Avatar he had glimpsed within the multiverse, knowing exactly where he wanted to start.

A/N: Well, this was a bit different from my usual chapters but I hope you liked it as a way to set the scene. And yes, just to finish clarifying, the idea is that the MC will use his powers to revive Avatar Kyoshi in the Hundred Year War period instead of Aang, thereby rebooting the Avatar cycle. As for why I placed emphasis on the Sozin comet arriving every 106 years instead, that was mainly to have an in-universe way to age up a few of my favorite characters from that era to at least 18.

Anyway, I hope this got your attention. And I would love to know what you think in the comments since it has been a long time since we have had an Avatar branch on this story. Anything, in particular, you would like to see under this new premise? Because if so, I am listening for feedback.

Happy reading everyone, and until next time, see ya!