The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very weird crossover. I just hope you have fun.
Carmine had called them. That was incredible on its own, as Carmine always preferred writing. He had called them, giving them his address first and a summary of the situation after, and told them throughout to hurry, come quickly, even in the dark of night they had to meet him in Republic City and they had to do so soon. It was a matter of the safety of the city, of perhaps the nation, and of one little girl in particular.
Layton collected Luke and the overnight bags and hurried to the Laytonmobile. The drive from his office to Republic City was a long one, but not particularly tiring even considering the time of night. Luke had gotten the same amount of information he had, which was nearly none, and with the time to spare he had a quick nap in the passenger seat while Layton drove in silent contemplation. He spent the drive flanked by the common spirits that liked to fly beside cars on the highway. He was more than used to the sight. As the Laytonmobile rolled into Republic City however, they peeled away and disappeared into the night sky as if spooked by something unseen, a sight that gave him a bit of pause. It wasn't like spirits to run away from potential fun. Something must have been wrong in the air.
The sun had just been setting when they left and it was well into nighttime when they arrived at the address Carmine had provided. Before he could even knock, the door opened, and Layton and Luke were roughly grabbed and pulled inside.
"Professor! Thank the spirits-" Carmine bolted the door behind them. "I apologize but time is of the essence. You were not followed, were you?"
"Er- no, I don't believe we were." Layton adjusted his hat and coat to shake off the nervous flutter the words caused him. Luke carefully tucked himself behind the professor's arm. "Is that going to be a concern?"
"Yes." Carmine Accidente took a long drink from his hip flask. Luke gave the detective a funny look, but Layton assured the boy with a pat to the shoulder. Carmine was a good soul, an ex-student of his that had gone into criminal justice and become a detective at the Bei Fong Metalbending Academy. Cases had not been entirely kind to him, and he had grown a bit of a paranoid streak that showed itself in refusing to drink from anything but his personal flask of water and a habit of locking doors behind him, even in casual company. Layton was prepared to explain to Luke quietly, when they had a peaceful moment, but the peace would have to wait.
Carmine took the two of them by the shoulder and turned them around, leading them out of the foyer and into the living room of the little house. The place was sparse; little furniture and none of it with any kind of character. The only thing of note in the space was a massive fireplace of old bent stone, obviously hand-hewn by skilled earthbenders long ago, and it wasn't even lit.
No, the only thing in the room to really notice, framed by the great mouth of the fireplace, was the young lady huddled in the middle of the settee. She seemed utterly exhausted and determined to stay awake from willpower, taking pained but long breaths and holding her arms close to herself, legs pressed tight together, and head ducked down into her shoulders.
"Look, Professor," Luke whispered up to Layton's ear. "She's wearing Earth Kingdom clothes."
"Indeed, Luke," the professor whispered back. The robes, even from a distance and in low light, were well-woven and sumptuously dyed in greens and yellows, even if the whites were slightly dulled with dirt and age. "A strange choice of attire, indeed, considering the 'Earth Kingdom' hasn't existed for roughly 100 years."
"Try not to bring that up to her," Carmine whispered between the two of them. Even now, she had turned her head up to watch them, eyes wide and wet in the dark. Blue eyes, and that odd yellow hair that only sprung up after the Harmonic Convergence. It wasn't terribly uncommon- even Carmine himself was born with it- but still a young enough phenomenon to be considered rare and unusual. Seeing a golden-haired teen in the clothes better fitting the 100 Years War gave Layton pause. It was too well made to be a costume, too worn around the shoulders, and her bottom-less shoes were scuffed and frayed along the edges. These were her clothes.
Carmine spoke aloud. "Espella. This is my good friend, Professor Layton. He's the man I told you about. He can help us, and your village." Her eyes darted to Luke, the fear building in a taut line against her back. "A-and this is-"
"Luke Triton," he spoke up. "The professor's number one apprentice!"
She smiled a little. "Yes. Thank you."
"Wow, that's a relief..." Luke muttered quietly. "Usually people give me funny looks when I say that..."
"Which would mean she's familiar with the concept..." Layton mused. Carmine hovered behind the professor, eyes constantly moving between the door and window and finally to them. "Carmine, may I approach her?"
"It should be fine." Carmine kept watch. "Just don't mention anything other than what I talked about over the phone."
Already feeling constrained, Layton pulled his hat snug against his head and met the young lady at the settee. He knelt down to meet her eye level, settling on his good leg and speaking in a quiet tone he reserved for young children in distress. "Miss Espella. I understand you are a long way from home."
"Yes..." She nodded as little as she could manage. There was a little jump to her shoulders when Luke settled beside the professor, but she restrained her nervous shaking and swallowed hard enough to speak again. "Yes I am. The good Sir Carmine brought me here, from Labyrinthia."
"That is your home?"
"My village, yes."
It wasn't rare for people to come from "villages", even now, but they were tucked far in the more rural parts of the Earth States. Layton felt his chest reflexively tighten at the thought, but put it aside for now. "You seem to be in distress. Do you fear for your safety?"
She nodded.
"For what reason?"
She swallowed again. "I think the firebenders are after me."
Luke gasped and held tight to Layton's arm, and the professor's chest immediately seized up with a strangled noise from his throat. Carmine, ever watchful at the window, lowered his eyes.
He had to press on. He pulled a little further at the statement. "The firebenders, you say?"
"Yes... if they knew the location of my village, they would..." She winced and shook away the thought as if it caused her pain. "But I can keep them at bay, for now, for I have The Story."
"The Story?"
Espella reached into the folds of her robe, pulling something out from inside. It was thick and dark and weighty- a book, by the look of it, almost a tome. Leather-bound and green as jade, bookmarked with a simple slip of torn parchment. "Everything you need to know is in here. Everything is in The Story, everything that was and everything that will be... and as long as I have it, it cannot continue. Please, take it. Read."
Feeling rather intimidated, Layton took the book and rose to his feet. He kept the tome low, so Luke could read with him, and cracked the pages open with a careful hand. The script was lovely, the careful calligraphy of a practiced hand and all evenly lined and obviously written with a hand-dipped feather quill pen. Well, obvious to his trained eye, at least. The inner columns, the paragraphs of fiction and vague mentions of events, were framed by casual and carefree characters he recognized as the Old Script of Avatar Aang's time. With some time, he could comb through his memory and read these passages, certainly, but at the moment he had pressing questions.
For instance, what was this strange smell that had taken his nose and settled unpalatably at the back of his mouth? And why was the text dancing on the page, and the book bathing the room in blue light? Luke made a startled noise and shook his head, wiping at his eyes.
"Professor!" he cried, "The words were moving! Did you see that?"
"Carmine..." Layton spoke quietly still, almost cacophonous in the silence of the house. "May I speak to you in private? There are some questions-"
"I cannot afford to leave her side for an instant," Carmine interrupted. "I will tell you what I know. This town of Labyrinthia is a place thick with conspiracy, ones that I believe can be solved with Espella's help, but I cannot continue on my own. At our first opportunity, we must venture back to that terrible place and-"
The words dropped from Carmine's mouth with a sharp shout. Following his line of sight, Layton's eyes looked through a far door, into an unlit room, where a black shape was rising up from the floor and glaring upon them with yellow, glowing eyes. Espella whipped around and shrieked in terror, clutching the book to her chest and plowing into Professor Layton.
Carmine screamed, "We have been discovered!" and attacked the black shape with a snap of his metal whip. The instrument streamed through the air right past Layton's ear, and with a quick correction of his balance Layton had Espella's arm hooked through his and Luke caught up under his elbow. He ran back through the foyer entrance, stopping as soon as they were out of the line of fire while Carmine metalbent cable after cable into the unrelenting black mass. "Layton, run! Take the children and run for your-"
With a sickening snikt, Carmine's cables came alight in orange fire and swept up his arms. Blinded by the sudden explosion and deafened by screaming in each ear, Layton pulled the two of them to the door. The deadbolt opened, his arms opening it independent of thought in his panic, and he slammed his full weight into door to throw all of them out into the cold night air.
More black shapes filled the streets, pulling up from the cobblestones and out of the side alleys in every direction. Barely back on their feet, the three of them were thrown to the ground by the building behind them exploding in a hail of bricks and mortar. Luke caught his footing first and pulled, and once Layton had his stance again he picked a direction- two masses who were further apart from each other from the rest- and rushed between them, Luke and Espella trailing behind.
A glance over his shoulder, and he saw it. A massive figure rising from the dark, shrouded in layers of fire. It stood higher than the buildings, its head framed in a halo of red, columns of flame wicking up from its extended hands. With a wave of its fingers, the other dark shapes burst into flames and chased after them, twice as fast as before, cars and lamp posts shooting out of their way.
"The Fire Lord!" Espella screamed in terror. "They've found us! It's all over!"
They were on a low bridge, one Layton had driven over on the way without thought, a canal that had been made out of one of the furrows in the earth left by The Great Uniter. He had barely noticed, only shocking back into awareness when a boat below blew its siren as a warning.
"I am very sorry, Espella!"
"What-?!"
With that, he hoisted one arm under her legs and tossed her over the railing, where she dropped and landed onto a soft cloth canopy with a light "thump." The last he saw was the green of her cloak whipping over the canopy and onto the deck, running for cover before the flaming figures overtook him and Luke with one final flash of white fire.