Lone Wolf

Here is the story that was inspired by reviewer Flawless Flower. Zuko is in a strange world and oddly somehow inside a water tank made of glass. How did he get here? Where is he? How will he get back home? We will soon find out.

It all starts after the sector seven plate falls and the Cloud, Tifa, and Barret are about to head off to Aeris' Mother's house.

ATLA/FFVII Xover.

I do not own or wish to copy write neither game nor cartoon.

The Phoenix Experiment

Chapter 1: Strange Worlds

Cloud just started to walk off back towards sector eight. Barret was right in the middle of his hatred for Shinra and the loss of his three companions. 'Seriously, if I want over acting drama, I'll watch a soap opera show.' Cloud stressed out in his head. 'I want to stop Shinra from causing anymore damage like this, but crying out loud and expressing your feelings is not going to change anything or stop them.' Sometimes Cloud wondered why they even needed Barret in the first place. All he does is shout and over dramatize everything. He's glad that destroying reactor's was over, he couldn't stand to listen more about that taking life from the planet crap anymore.

"Someone help!" a voice suddenly ripped Cloud from his thoughts. It sounded like some old man. Maybe a survivor from sector seven.

Without hesitating cloud dashed over debris and crossed ditches towards the cry for help.

After he cleared the last obstacle in his way, he landed right in the middle of a pack of whole eaters surrounding an old man trapped under a metal plate that miraculously didn't crush him. Cloud quickly started slicing through each of the small creatures with his buster sword easily chopping each one and sending small amounts of their blood against walls. The whole eaters suddenly realized that they were out matched by an oversized opponent and all fled into the junk off into the distance. Cloud turned back to the trapped elder.

The elderly man looked up to see his rescuer approach. "The spirits surly are with me to answer my call."

'Oh great, another religious nut.' Cloud groaned. He then placed his sword between a pipe and the plate as a means to lift it just enough for the elderly man to crawl out. After he was out and free, Cloud sheathed back his sword and pulled the man up by his arm. "Are you a survivor from sector seven sir?" Cloud asked

The man looked at him a bit of confused of the question, but then saw what he was referring to. "If that was the name of that place that was destroyed, then yes." he said sadly.

'Great. I hope he doesn't start getting all sappy.' he sighed in thought. He then realized one troubling question about the old man. "How were you able to survive that fallen debris? That thing would have crushed you right on the spot." Cloud wondered.

The man only smiled mischievously. "Family secret my good sir."

This only annoyed Cloud further about the old man. "Whatever. I don't have time for this." he started to walk off to resume his journey.

But then the man caught up with him quicker than Cloud expected of an old man. "Wait!" he called.

Cloud sighed heavily and turned impatiently. "What?" he rudely asked uninterested.

The old man seemed to ignore Clouds impatience. "I am looking for my nephew." he explained. "I heard he has been seen in this very gloomy city. He is almost seventeen years of age and has a very distinctive mark on his eye. He has golden eyes like mine and sort of has a short temper. Have you seen him?"

"No." Cloud said uncaring. He had no time to for finding lost children.

The old man persisted. "Please, he is my only family left and he is the last heir to the throne of his nation." he said hoping that the meaning of 'heir' would give Cloud the indication that great rewards would be included in finding this nephew of his.

Cloud, still being a mercenary, had stopped him from leaving. "He is royal?"

The man nodded. "The reward will be great. In gold." he brought out a good sized sack of gold. Cloud eyes widened at this desperate offer. "Half now, and half after you bring him back."

Before cloud could answer, Tifa and Barret came up from behind. "Yo Cloud! Where did you go?" then Barret saw the old man holding out some sort of sack of something heavy. "Hey cloud who's the old fart and what's goin' on here?"

Iroh was shocked at the sight of the new comers. The man's skin was very dark than he has ever seen and he was curious of the thing that now replaced his hand. Plus he was almost twice the size of a man. The woman had very long hair than he thought was necessary for a woman to have, but the hair was not the thing he stared at. She wore very revealing clothing than he ever saw a woman wear out in public. But yet he could tell that she wasn't one to take lightly by her combat gloves and strong physical appearance. But now wasn't the time to try to flirt with younger woman, his nephew had to be found.

Cloud then spoke up. "It looks like we have a secondary mission."

"What?" Tifa spoke up surprised. "Cloud, we don't have time doing any side quests. Aeris is in trouble and…"

Cloud spoke up cutting her off from continuing her usual lectures on him. "He is this man's nephew and only family, he is heir to the throne of a nation, and all we have to do is keep an eye out for him. I'll give you the details along the way to save Aeris alright!" he slightly shouted. Then cloud tossed the sack in the air a couple of times. "Besides, this man paid us half up front in gold already. How hard can this job be?"

Barret rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "So all we have to do is keep an eye out for this kid and bring him back to his old man here?" Cloud nodded. "Well that does sounds pretty damn easy. We're in!"

"Barret." Tifa pleaded.

"Oh calm down Tifa it's not like this will cause us any trouble or anything." Barret reasoned. "Besides, you just can't let a royal rich kid wander around alone and away from his grandpa here can ya?"

"Um Uncle actually." the man corrected him.

"Yeah sure whatever." Barret shrugged off.

"Barret!" Tifa scolded. "Can't you be nice to someone for at least one minute?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." he said waving her off.

"Don't worry sir. We will do all we can to find your nephew." she reassured him.

"Thank you. I will be most grateful if you find him." then he turned to leave.

"Wait!" Tifa called out. The man turned around. "Where are you going?"

"There is another friend of mine that I need to find as well." he explained.

"Well what is your name and the name of your nephew so we know exactly who to look for?" she asked.

He then bowed to them as he introduced himself. "My name is Iroh and my nephew's name is Zuko." Tifa bowed back, unsure of whether she should or shouldn't, in respect as Cloud and Barret just exchanged odd looks at each other towards the unusual man. "And I wish you all the luck for finding my nephew. Maybe we can have some of my famous tea if we meet up again." then he was of on his own journey.

The three just stared after him in confusion. "Crazy old geezer." Barret said out loud. "alright let's go after Aeris and find this Zuko kid along the way." Barret was off leaving the two behind.

Tifa then looked to cloud. "What do you think of this?" she asked skeptically.

Cloud just started to walk off after Barret. "I don't care. We'll just try to find him as we rescue Aeris."

Tifa stayed back a bit in thought. "I have a bad feeling about this." she said to herself.

All he heard was the sound of water. But the kind of sound you hear when you're submerged and yet he was still breathing air. How was this possible? Was he dead and in the spirit world? No. his head hurt from that light that appeared during his address to the nations after they had won the war. You can't feel pain after you're dead.

His eyes opened but not too wide. It was true. He was under water. The only lights were under and above him everywhere else was shrouded in darkness. Also, there was something on his mouth that was somehow feeding him air to breath with. He was in shorts only. His other clothing was gone. 'What is going on here?' he thought in a panic.

He tried to swim forward, but was stopped suddenly by a hard invisible wall of some sort. He felt the barrier and found that it was the same feeling as the glass on a mirror. But this glass was different. He could see through it. 'What kind of trick is this?'

He tried to feel his way for an opening somewhere, but soon found out that he was in some kind of strange glass container. Was he in some sort of prison for fire benders? None of this made sense.

"Well look how is finally wake." a cackling voice spoke out. If the air feeding contraption and the water wasn't there, he would have demanded to know who was there. "How is my special experiment doing today?"

'Experiment?' he wondered in shock. 'Where am I?'

"I suppose you are wondering where you are right now." he continued. "You are in my laboratory at Shinra Tower. You are a rare specimen indeed."

He was beginning to panic now. What kind of experiment was he going to conduct? Why was he referred to as a rare specimen? What kind of place was this Shinra Tower? These questions plagued his mind.

"You are no doubt the first and last of your kind." the crackling voice continued. "You possess the very fires of Ifrit himself without the use of materia. You could possibly hold the key to ruling this pathetic planet."

'Won't this guy ever shut the hell up!' he thought irritably. 'What does he mean first and last of my kind? There are many fire benders before and after me. Who is Ifrit? What is materia? What is he fucking talking about!'

Just then, the lights flashed on causing momentary blindness to him momentary blindness, but when he opened his eyes he was in a state of pure shock and confusion. All around him in the room was covered in a mixture of grey and reflective metals all around. The room hummed the sound of strange machinery that was far beyond his knowledge, he saw flashing lights, some sorts of mechanical devices moving around, wires of all sizes everywhere, and unnatural lights shining overhead not lighted by fire of any kind. His mind was starting to feel over stressed with all the lights and humming sounds of the strange machinery. But when he lifted his head and opened his eyes once again, he jumped back in the water away from a unnaturally disturbing face staring right at him wearing small glasses of some type over his eye and his face was almost as pale as the dead. His hair was pitch black and long and placed into a pony tail. Why a pony tail? He wore a white coat that almost covered his whole body.

'What is this place!' he wondered fearfully.

The man only gave a creepy cackling laugh which sent chills down his spine. "You Zuko are to be my top priority of my goals." he said as he tapped the glass of his glass container and then walked off to who knows where.

Zuko in a state of fear. Fear of where he was, what type of situation he was in, how that man knew his name, what was to become of him, and mostly fear of that he was alone and no one knew where he was. Wasn't his life already done with bringing misery to him every step of the way? Did he not suffer enough all sixteen years? Wasn't enough people taken away from him already? Did he have to lose another new found family after losing his old one?

Zuko believed this is what he deserved for everyone he had once hurt and betrayed. This was his judgment. This was his punishment.

Zuko curled up into a ball and backed up as much as he could against the wall of glass as much as he could and wept of never seeing his friends, family, and home again. But his biggest regret was that he would never get the chance to find his mother now he knew that she was still alive. He hated life. It only brought him misery, heart ache, and loneliness.

Lone Wolf

Well this is the beginning of a new story about Zuko. Like my other story, constructive criticism. Thank you Flawless Flower.