Chapter 1: A Strange Visitor
Katsu mindlessly drummed his fingers on a wooden table. His shift was going to start soon, and he was restless. And bored. Very, very bored. He'd much rather stay where he was in the guard's break room and catch some sleep. But instead, he had to guard prisoner's locked up in the Fire Nation Capital Prison.
"The sooner it starts, the sooner it'll be over." He told himself, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling.
"And the sooner it'll start again." The sound of a chair scrapping against stone permeated the air, and another guard took a seat across the table from him.
"Evening, Rakesh." Katsu mumbled out.
"Evenin'. Why the glum face, Katsu?"
"You know why. It's so boring around here!"
"Boring? Nah, it's not boring! We got-" Rakesh paused for a moment. "Okay, so it is boring here. But hey, at least you got me to talk to, right?"
"That makes me feel worse."
"Hey!"
Katsu sighed. "I wish something exciting would happen around here."
"Hey, don't tempt fate!"
Beside the two, a candle filled with spark powder produced twelve pops.
"Twelve flashes. Twelve o'clock. Time for our shift." He got up and looked to his friend. "You comin'?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Katsu reluctantly stood up and groaned. "It's so damn hot…"
"You're in the Fire Nation, Katsu!" Rakesh laughed and slapped him on the back. "It's always hot!"
They had just reached the door when a small, almost unnoticeable ringing filled the air. Katsu's heart skipped a beat. He looked over to the wall and his breath froze. The emergency signal bell from Level Two was ringing.
"I told you not to tempt fate!" Rakesh whispered as Katsu ran over to the wall and picked up a communications device connecting to Level Two.
"Hello, Level Two!" He yelled into the device. "What's wrong!"
No answer.
"Are you there, Level Two!"
Pure silence.
Another bell began ringing, the one from Level Three.
"Something's going on." He rushed out the door past Rakesh and right into another guard. Before the other man had time to react, Katsu shouted: "There's something going on at Levels Two and Three! They won't answer!"
The corridors became filled with a flurry of movement as guards rushed down to Level Four.
"Is there someone breaking in?" A voice asked.
"Well catch them by surprise!" Another voice.
They all stuck fast to the wall. It was eerily quiet as every man and woman waited, each of them looking over the corner for the intruder, each of their hearts pounding out of their chests.
Clack.
It rang out through the corridor, causing all to tense up.
Clack.
The metallic sound rang out again, this time closer.
Clack.
It was nearly there now. Katsu looked over to the other guards, their pale faces shining out unnaturally with sweat, eyes wide, and he knew he couldn't let this happen. Motioning for them to be quiet, he slowly edged towards the corner. Each step he made resonated with his heart beat. He felt like he was in a dream. He hoped he was in a dream. He prayed he was in a dream.
The gaunt, ghostly, cat-owl-like face was the first thing he saw. He struck out his palm, the fire lighting up the area with a dull brightness. But it was too late. The fire had hardly even left his fingers tips as he heard the bang, felt the pain in his chest, the wetness seeping out of very body. He looked down. A warm trickling complimented the blood pouring out of his chest. As he looked up at his attacker, he saw the man's gleeful smile.
"Surprise." Came a light-hearted voice, barely even a whisper. In the man's hand was something Katsu had never seen before. Metal stared him in the face, smoke slowly rising from the barrel, the smell of something unrecognizable floating through the air.
And the Katsu began to fall. His vision faded, his body began to feel cold and numb, it became hard to breathe. A dull thud met his ears as he reached the stone floor. The last thing he saw before his breath escaped him was a small boy in rags, reaching a small hand out, as if to help him up. Katsu reached out and took his hand, a cool embrace enveloping him into the world of Spirits. And one word came to his mind.
Agni.
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A small, light laugh escaped Laffitte's lips as he looked down at the dead guard before him.
"It seems fate was not on your side." He said to no one in particular.
"The ones downstairs must've sent out an alarm." Shiliew appeared behind him, cigar between his teeth, map in his hands. "Doesn't matter, this is the floor."
"Are you absolutely sure about that, Shiliew?" Another voice stepped out from the darkness.
"Of course, Captain. Don't forget I used to be the Warden of Impel Down. I know how a jail works." He handed the map back to the man behind him. "Here I marked where his cell is."
"Good." The man held the map in front of his face, obscuring it from others. "Yeah, this is great. Good job!"
A stampede of footsteps stopped the conversation. At least ten more guards stood before the three, faces paled with fear, yet all still in a fighting stance, ready to strike at any moment.
"Looks like we still got company." Shiliew lit up his cigar, and turned back to his captain. "What should we do?"
The captain laughed, an unnatural sound flowing through the air. "Mow 'em down."
OoOoOoOoOoO
Ozai already knew something was going on even before the shadow obscured the door. He'd heard voices he didn't recognize, screams of pain, screams you make just before you die. Maybe it was a prison break. Maybe someone had gone crazy. He didn't know. He didn't particularly care. That is, until that shadow had moved in front of his door. The doorknob slowly turned, and the door creaked open, the un-oiled hinges shrieking in protest.
And then that man stood before him. He was so tall, so wide, he took up almost the entire room. He was dark-skinned, with a crooked nose, and several teeth missing from his smile. He wore an expensive-looking coat over yet another coat, which was open, exposing his hairy stomach and chest; Several rings decorated his fingers, at least two necklaces were wrapped around his thick neck, a sash wrapped around his waist. He had curly, black hair that reached down to his shoulders, and a shaggy black beard to match. All and all, he looked like a king. And from his gaze, Ozai surmised he was a king who demanded respect, he got what he wanted by force, and powerful king.
Ozai hated him from the first look. He seemed too proud, too arrogant, an man who was likely to get himself killed instantly.
"Ex-Fire Lord Ozai, I presume?" He sounded drunk, really, with a haughty aura mixed in.
"Yes, that is correct." Ozai couldn't recall the last time he spoke, his own voice sounded hoarse and weak. "And you would be?"
"Blackbeard." The man said with pride. "I'm Blackbeard."
"What an interesting name. And what do I owe the pleasure, Blackbeard?"
"Well, I have a proposition for you, Ozai." The man crossed his arms. "I want you to join me."
Ozai couldn't help but laugh. "Join you? Join you on what, a picnic? Should I bring a blanket?"
"I want you to join my Pirate Crew."
Ozai froze. Then he laughed. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed like this, when his lungs hurt, and when tears came to his eyes. "Did you escape from the Mental Ward? Pirates haven't sailed the seas for years."
"Not these seas, no. But in the Grand Line, they're everywhere."
Ozai again laughed. "The Grand Line? And where would that be?"
"In another world. Through the Portal of Spirits."
Ozai stopped laughing, his heart racing. "The Portal of Sprits? That's just an old legend. It doesn't exist."
"Can you prove that?" Blackbeard leaned down, meeting Ozai's eyes. "Can you prove it doesn't exist?"
"Can you prove that it does?" He countered.
"Of course." The other man stood back up. "Avatar Aang existed. Everyone thought he was dead, that the cycle had been broken, but he existed. And he beat you, didn't he? He took away your power, your firebending, and he locked you up in this jail, locked you up to rot away forever."
Ozai growled, getting angry. "If you're from another world, then how did you-"
"I know everything about this world. I know because this is a world of dreamers. This is a world of fate. Fate looked down upon you, it took away your power." He reached into his pocket then, and pulled out a fruit. "But Fate's looking at you in good favor again, Ozai." He held in his hand a fruit. "This is a Devil Fruit. Eat it, and you can have your power back. Join me, and you can have your power back!"
"That can give me my firebending back?"
"It might give you power over fire, but it wouldn't be your firebending. Or it could make be able to transform into a powerful animal. Or you could be made of any sort of substance. You never know what a Devil Fruit might give you. You might get a powerful ability, or a useless one. It's a gamble. Eating a Devil Fruit can get you all the power in the world! But you can never swim again. If you fall into the sea, you'll get all your energy sucked out of you; you'll feel like you're made of lead, like you just ran for three days straight. You'll sink like a hammer." Blackbeard smiled yet again. "And the Fruit itself tastes like shit." He held out the fruit then, just out of Ozai's reach. "So are you in or out? I've already got my people over at the Mental Ward, freeing your daughter, Princess Azula, and giving her the same offer. Together, you two could take on anything."
Ozai thought for a moment, then spoke. "So either I take your offer and gain my freedom, gain power, but I have to follow under you, correct?"
He nodded. "Yup. If you ever try to leave, or disobey, or do anything I don't like, I just might kill you! Zehahahahaha!"
"Or I stay here, in this cell, for the rest of my life."
"You got it. So, what'll it be?"
Ozai closed his eyes and thought. Freedom, however limited it might be, freedom was right in front of him. Power. He could be powerful again. But then there was the chance that this man was insane, and he was just going to look like a fool by going with him. What would he choose? To stay here, or go? And what would Azula choose? This could very well be the most important decision of his life. It took nearly ten minutes for him to weigh out his choices, but he finally reached a conclusion.
His muscles ached as he stood up, his joint screamed in pain. He hardly ever used them anymore. But he would need them to obey his every command now. Looking the man before him straight in the eyes, he said: "I accept your offer, Blackbeard."
"Zehahahaha! Good choice!" Blackbeard threw the Devil Fruit at Ozai, who barely caught it. "Just eat. Brace yourself, though."
Ozai looked at the fruit in his hands. It looked just like a bell-pepper, except for the swirling pattern that covered its entirety. He braced himself, and took a bite. Ozai nearly threw up. Blackbeard wasn't exaggerating about the taste; It was the worst tasting thing Ozai had ever eaten. It was as if he'd eaten an egg that had been sitting out for over a year. Sitting out for over a year in sewage. But Ozai forced himself to swallow, he forced the bile in his stomach to stay down. And he took another bite. And another. If he ate the thing fast enough, then he wouldn't have to endure this torture.
"You don't have to eat the whole thing, you know." Blackbeard commented, looking sick himself, but Ozai didn't hear him. He just focused on the fruit. And, finally, he finished.
"I told you it would taste terrible." The other man said, unlocking the cell door and stepping back. "Welcome to the Blackbeard Pirate Crew, Ozai."
The ex-Fire Lord hobbled forward, grasping the bars of his cell for support. The light of freedom was just ahead of him. He straightened his slumped shoulders and walked forward, feeling a new power coursing through his veins.
"It's take you a bit to know what your new power is, and to fully understand and control it, so don't try using it right now, unless you wanna get killed."
"Right…" Ozai gasped out. "Thank you."
And Ozai smiled, feeling more powerful than ever. "Captain."
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Fire Lord Zuko looked down at the dead guard. Katsu was his name, and he'd been working as a guard for only a few months.
"Do you know how he died?" He asked a nearby healer, who was examining the body.
"Something pierced his heart, sir. He must've died within a minute, at least."
"So he was stabbed?"
"No, sir." The healer looked up at Zuko. "I'm not quite sure how, but it wasn't a sword or knife that killed him. The wound is too small. I think something was shot into him, at a high speed. I've been trying to get it out, but it's too deep in there, I'd need some better tools. It's the same with a few of the other fatalities. The other dead were killed by sword, judging from the wounds, and the scratch marks on the walls."
Zuko nodded. He'd received word only a few hours ago, word that a massacre had taken place at the prison. Who could've done this? And for what purpose?
"My Lord!" Hurried footsteps and a panicked voice brought Zuko out of his thoughts. Another healer was running down from the floor above. Bowing to the Fire Lord, he quickly blurted out: "My Lord, we've found another survivor! One that's conscious and recalls events of the attack!" The healer looked up. "He is requesting an audience with you, Fire Lord Zuko."
Zuko nodded. "Take me to him." As the rhythmatic beats of his boots filled his ears, Zuko couldn't help but look at the wounded and the dead they passed by in their brisk walk. He decided right then and there that he would find whoever did this. He would stop at nothing to find them and make them pay.
When they finally reached the man in question, he was already being treated for a wound to his arm. As soon as the man looked up and saw Zuko, he lunged forward, making the healer treating him stumble backwards.
"Sir, please sit still!" The healer berated. "I won't be able to properly-" The man got one look at Zuko and feel to his knees. "Fire Lord Zuko! I wasn't aware that you were-"
"Is this man seriously injured?" Zuko interrupted.
"N-No, sir. He does have a foreign object lodged in his left arm, however. I was just trying to remove it."
"Would you mind if I spoke with him for a few moments?"
"Not at all, sir." The healer stepped back, giving them some room.
Zuko knelt down to be eye level with the man. He spoke in a calm, quiet voice. "I've been told you remember the details of the attack?"
The guard nodded. "Yes sir. Me and my friend Katsu were just about to start our shifts when the alarms went off on Levels Two and Three. No one was responding, so we figured that they'd been attacked. Most of the guards had gone to catch the intruder by surprise on Level Four." He gritted his teeth and looked away. "We were no match. There were three of them, a ghastly looking, pale man with some sort of weapon that fires balls of metal the pierce the flesh. Another one was wearing all black, extremely tall, and he wielded a sword. The third was a large, tan man, who wore a black coat, and has a shaggy black beard. We tried to fight them, but everyone was either killed, wounded, or forced to retreat. As soon as I was wounded in my arm, I pretended to have died, in order to listen in on their conversation. Two of them called each other 'Laffitte' and 'Shiliew'. The third one went into a cell, and I heard him call himself 'Blackbeard'." The guard became silent again, looking tense and nervous. He steeled himself, and looked Zuko straight in the eye. "The cell Blackbeard went into was the cell of Ex-Fire Lord Ozai's. They conversed for a small amount of time, and then it sounded as if Blackbeard had give the prisoner some sort of power. A 'Devil Fruit', he called it. Then Blackbeard had told Ozai that he had allies breaking Princess Azula out of the Mental Ward. It sounded as if Ozai accepted Blackbeard's offer to create an alliance, and all four escaped."
Zuko heard nothing after that, only his own heartbeat. He didn't hear the constant call of the healers asking him where he was going, or what his intentions were. He didn't see anything beside the path he was going. He felt as if time had slowed, as if he were walking through water. Finally he reached the cell door. Slowly turning the knob, he braced himself.
Gone.
There was no one there. The door to the actual cell was hanging open, as if it had been vacant for years. And no prisoner. No Ozai. No anyone.
Gone.
Gone.
Gone.
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Nami looked worriedly at the Log Pose. They had hardly descended more than 1000 meters below the waves, yet the needle had flattened out, as if Fishman Island was right in front of them. But it couldn't be. Fishman Island was 10,000 meters below sea level. There was no way. She tapped the Log Pose, but it refused to fix itself. And there was no way they could go back up to Sabaody to get a new one. Not with the Marines swarming around the island like an angry nest of wasps.
She sighed and looked at the deck. There was no easy way to break this to anyone. "Bad news, everyone." They all looked up at her, as they always did, expecting orders, declarations, or anything of the sort. "Funny." She smiled to herself. "And I'm not even the Captain. I've missed this." But this was no time to get nostalgic. "The Log Pose is broken. We're no where near Fishman Island yet, but the needle's flattened out. I don't know how it broke, but we can't go get a new one."
"So what you mean to say…" The green-haired Zoro spoke up from below her. "Is that you broke it while you were training for the past two years?"
Nami felt the vein snapping in her forehead. She picked up the nearest object and threw it directly at the stupid swordsman's head with frightening accuracy. No one else came up with any theories on how the Log Pose broke.
Robin looked up at her. "How deep are we right now, Nami-chan?"
"About 1000 Meters."
Robin looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes, that explains it." She mumbled to herself. "I was wondering if we'd run into this problem." She called up. "It seems we've encountered one of the entrances to the Portal of Spirits."
"The Portal of Spirits?" Franky called from the ship's port-side. "What's that?"
"In several points on the Grand Line, there's a Portal opened up by Spirits from another world. It happens randomly, at any time, and the Portal itself stays open for about one month."
"Spirits from another world?" Chopper repeated from yet another corner of the ship. "That's impossible!"
"You're a talking reindeer, don't say anything is impossible!" Nami shouted.
Laughing quietly, Robin continued. "The other world acts as if it were an entire island. It has its own magnetic field. And the inhabitants of this world are able to control the four elements using a martial arts technique known as 'Bending'.""
Nami nodded. "Do you know how long it takes for the Log to adjust?"
"From reports I've read, it takes about a week."
"Alright then." She turned to her Captain. The one with a straw-hat placed firmly upon his head. The one was looking straight forward with an unwavering gaze. "What do you wanna do, Luffy?"
"Shishishishi!" Was the chuckling that came from his mouth. "Alright, everyone!" He pumped a fist into the air. "We're going to the 'Land of Bendy-straws', then Fishman Island!"
"THAT'S 'BENDERS', YOU IDIOT!" Most everyone yelled.
Alternate Ending!:
Ozai looked at the fruit in his hands. It looked just like a bell-pepper, except for the swirling pattern that covered its entirety. He braced himself, and took a bite. Ozai nearly threw up. Blackbeard wasn't exaggerating about the taste; It was the worst tasting thing Ozai had ever eaten. It was as if he'd eaten an egg that had been sitting out for over a year. Sitting out for over a year in sewage. He mentioned this to Blackbeard, who produced a gleeful smile on his face and began to laugh.
"Well, it should taste like that!" His voice became higher, and his laugh seemed different. "Because that's what you just ate!"
He proceeded to unzip the suit he was in, revealing Sokka and Toph, who were wearing the faux Blackbeard suit. The two fist-pounded and made a strange 'oooohhhhh!' noise Ozai had never heard before.
"And the guards?" Toph mentioned. She then held up a ketchup bottle. "All in on it!" The duo high-fived and walked out of the cell, laughing all the way.
"… Why do I fall for it every time?" Ozai mused to himself.