So here's the new chapter. Been a while since I updated this, but here it is! I hope you guys like it!
Chapter 4: Allies of Convenience
Aang didn't really understand what was going on. When he woke up, he was looking into two large eyes, a small scar beneath one of them. He sat up quickly and began yelling to someone named Chopper that they had woken up, although he wasn't really sure who Chopper was or why he'd been asleep.
He looked to his right and saw that he wasn't alone, but he could also tell that not everyone he had been with but moments ago were present and he immediately sat up straight, looking around futilely for his friends, as well as his enemies. Then, against all forms of sense and reason, a small reindeer wearing a pink hat with a blue nose came into the room, followed by a blonde man with swirling eyebrows, the latter of which was carrying a tray of food.
The blonde set the food in front of him before leaving the room again, while the reindeer came up to him and looked him in the eyes before opening its mouth and speaking.
"Hello, my name is Chopper and I'm a doctor. I looked over your wounds but they were mostly superficial, although I can't tell you where they came from. You've only been asleep for about an hour, but I think it would be a good idea for you to eat something. Even though you didn't have any serious injuries, your body looks like it's taken quite a bit of pressure, so you need to regain some nutrients."
Aang wasn't sure how to react, so he just nodded, picking up his utensils and looking down at his food. The doctor, Chopper looked pleased until Aang's hand suddenly stopped on its way to the food. He looked up sheepishly, as if uncertain, before looking back down at the food. Finally, he looked up and spoke, "Excuse me, but I'm a vegetarian, so I don't eat meat. Would it be possible to have something else to eat?"
Aang felt embarrassed and a little guilty about asking for something else to eat when they were being so generous as it is, but Chopper just nodded before picking up the tray and leaving the room, before reappearing soon with a vegetarian dish, followed by the boy that had been staring at him when he woke up.
"Hey, so you don't eat meat? That's kinda weird, why not?" the boy said, sitting in the chair next to him.
"It was how I was brought up. The Air Nomads didn't believe in taking the life of any living creature for self-gratification. I do not mind when others eat meat, I just simply do not eat it myself," he said. "Thank you for preparing a special meal for me. I hope the food you had originally made did not go to waste."
The blonde man stepped back into the room at that point, and, hearing the latter end of the conversation, responded, "Don't worry about it, Luffy decided if you weren't going to eat it, he'd have another snack."
"Luffy?" Aang asked, wondering what, or rather who, Luffy was.
"Ahaha, that's me. Nice ta meet ya," the boy with the straw hat said, grinning at him. The grin reminded him a lot of Sokka, and he began to feel very sad. He didn't know where his friends were, but he knew he would find them.
Aang nodded and then said, "Thank you very much for the food," before he began eating.
"I'm Sanji, and aren't you going to tell us who you are or why the hell you fell from the sky?" the blonde man asked, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.
Aang looked up, surprised, "You don't know who I am?" He didn't expect this. Pretty much everyone knew who he was, in every nation.
"No, why would we? Are ya famous or somethin'?" Luffy asked, picking at his ear.
"Well, somewhat. I'm Aang, and I'm the Avatar," he answered the boy, wondering how he didn't know that.
"What's an Avatar?" he asked, this time looking at him with a bit of curiosity.
"You don't know what the Avatar is?" Aang asked in surprise. Everybody at least knew what the Avatar was, even if they didn't know he was the Avatar. How could these three not know what the Avatar was, especially after the recent events and the end of the Fire Nation's empire?
"Young Avatar, I think it's very possible that we have stumbled upon a different world entirely," a voice said from the bed next to him. Aang looked over, surprised to see his comrade was awake, but then his words registered.
"A different world?" he asked.
"Yes, I woke up some time ago, but bid my time, watching the people around us. They have strange abilities that have no relation to bending. However, I wasn't certain until it became apparent that they had no knowledge of either you or what the Avatar is. For this reason, I believe we must not be in our world at this time," the older man said.
"But, Jeong Jeong, if we're not in our world, then where are we?" Aang exclaimed, confused about the entire situation.
"Huh?" Luffy asked, looking from Aang to the man named Jeong Jeong.
"I am sorry for interrupting your conversation. My name is Jeong Jeong and I am a fire bender, however, I doubt you know what that is," the man said, nodding his head in Luffy's direction.
"Um… no… what's bending?" Luffy asked, his curiosity growing, and when Sanji looked over at Luffy, he could tell he was only a few words away from inviting the men before him to join his crew, even though the last one hadn't even woken up yet.
"Benders have the ability to control one of the four elements. I am able to bend fire, and through fire, I am able to bend lightning as well. The Avatar is the only person who is capable of bending all four elements. Each time an Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into the next generations. Aang is the current Avatar," Jeong Jeong explained.
He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when stars appeared in Luffy's eyes and he exclaimed, "JOIN MY CREW!"
"What?" Aang said in both confusion and exclamation. He had just met them, and he wanted them to join his boat crew. That was insane. He also wasn't sure why he would want two benders to join a ship crew, it's not as if they would be necessarily helpful.
"Join my pirate crew!" Luffy said, practically jumping in his seat.
"Pirate crew?!" Aang yelled. "What do you mean pirate crew?! My duty is to protect people and maintain balance. I could never join a group of people who deliberately seek to hurt innocent lives!"
The little reindeer Chopper spoke up at that, "We don't do that."
Aang's head swiveled towards the small creature. "What do you mean?"
"We never attack innocents. Actually, we usually try to help them from any mistreatment, whether it be from another pirate crew, the Marines, or the World Government. We don't fight to kill, and we never randomly attack someone without provocation. We fight to protect the lives of innocents and those we care about. I can understand your hesitancy, as I felt the same way, as a doctor. However, this is not that kind of pirate crew," the reindeer explained, and Aang could tell he was telling the truth.
"Then why be a pirate crew at all?" Aang asked.
"The same reason I wanna be King of the Pirates! Pirates can roam the open seas without having to follow anyone else's orders. We don't have to kill when we don't want to, and if we don't wanna hurt someone or fight someone, we don't have to. We can protect our friends in whatever way possible, without someone telling us we can't because it's too dangerous or it's against orders. Being a pirate means freedom," Luffy said with a grin, still rocking on his seat.
After his speech, a third voice spoke up, "I recommend joining them, then."
Aang looked over at the newly awakened sword master, "Piandao, you're awake."
"Yes, I woke up a few minutes ago, and I couldn't help but hear your conversation. If what they say is true, and I can see that it is, using their treatment of us as evidence, then I believe that we could join this crew without fear of hurting or disregarding our consciences. I would also like to point out that it was not too long ago that all three of us were considered to be on the wrong side of the law," the middle aged man said, sitting up straight in his bed.
"I guess you're right," Aang said, and looking at Jeong Jeong, he received a nod. He turned his attention towards Luffy, "We will join your crew, however, I would like to tell you that while we travel, we will be searching for our friends, as they are most likely here as well. Also, we will not participate in any unlawful actions that violate our sense of morality."
Luffy just nodded at him, getting suddenly serious, "No one on my crew has to do anything if they think it's wrong. I'd never want to do anything to make you feel like you'd done something wrong."
Aang smiled and nodded, before returning to his food. Sanji had left a little earlier and had just returned with food for Piandao and Jeong Jeong, and they both began to eat as well.
Suddenly Chopper sat up, "Oh, yea, I forgot to tell you. Come on Aang, I think there's someone outside who will be very happy to see you!"
Aang stood up and followed the little reindeer, albeit a bit hesitantly, followed by Piandao and Jeong Jeong. When he reached the deck of the ship, he saw a large tree with a tire swing and a field of grass. It was quite impressive, actually.
Then, when he looked over the rail, his face turned into that of a little kid at seeing their puppy. His mouth turned into a huge grin and he jumped over the entirety of the ship, using a bit of airbending to help him get to his goal, and jumped on top of the huge, fluffy, flying bison laying in the water beside the ship.
"APPA!" he yelled, crying tears of joy. Piandao and Jeong Jeong smiled at him from their spot on the deck. Appa had been one of Aang's closest allies and friends throughout his entire troubling life, and they were happy to see that Aang had at least one of his gang with him while separated.
…
"Pakku! You're awake!" Sokka yelled happily, looking over to see the old man sit up.
"Yes, very astute observation of you, Sokka," the elderly man said.
"Yea, yea, that's great and all, but what do you mean you know what's going on here?!" Toph practically yelled into the water bender's face.
"We have been transported into another world," Pakku said, looking over at the man sitting in the corner of the room. "You have no knowledge of the most basic geographical profiles of our world, nor the most basic understanding of bending. Granted, what Toph has obviously performed is nowhere near basic and is actually a new development in bending, the word bending would at least be familiar to you, regardless of where in our world you grew up. Even more than that, the words Fire Nation would be more than recognizable to any citizen of our world, given our recent history. For that reason, I believe we are no longer in our world, but in yours."
The man thought about what he had said. Yes, he didn't recognize the names of the places or bending, which was apparently common and widespread knowledge to them. They also seemed clearly confused by anything he told them about the geography here, granted he hadn't told them much. They had actually revealed to him more about themselves than what he had revealed to them.
"You're right. Everyone knows what the Fire Nation, especially since the entire world was at war with it for the last 100 years, until we ended it last month," Toph said bitterly, upset she didn't realize it before. She tore the metal that she had fused to her body, straightened it out and placed it back onto the bed frame, fusing the metal of the bed with the frame so it was once again usable. She sat down on it and looked over to the man.
"Sorry about the last few minutes. My name is Toph, and I'm an Earth Bender. Normally I hate being off of land, since I can't swim and I can't see when I'm on wood or something like that, but this submarine isn't too bad since it's made of metal, and metal is a direct product of earth," she said.
Next the other girl sighed, rolling her eyes. She sat up and looked at him, "My name is Mai. I'm not a bender, but I can fight with my daggers," she said, glaring at him. "And yes, I'm always like this," she added before lying back down and closing her eyes.
The boy looked over from Pakku to the man in the corner and back to Pakku before moving his eyes back to the man in the corner. "Well, when you put it like that Gramps Gramps, it makes more sense. My name is Sokka, and I don't bend either, but I can use my sword and my trustee boomerang."
Pakku's face morphed into irritation, "I told you that even though I married your grandmother, I do not want you calling me that, now stop it at once." He then turned his face to the man in the room, "My name is Pakku and I am a water bender, but I can also bend ice and snow."
The man in the corner seemed to be appraising them, before he leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees, "My name is Trafalgar Law. Now, could I please know what this bending is? Although I think I may partially understand it now. Also, you mentioned having others that would also most likely be here. Maybe I will have heard of them."
"Benders have the ability to control one of the four elements," Pakku said. "I can control water, and through water ice and snow. One of our comrades, Katara, who is Sokka's sister, is also a water bender, however she can also blood bend, which bends the water in the body of a living being, although she avoids it at all costs. Toph is an earth bender, and she has developed the skill of metal bending, which was unheard of before. Earth King Bumi, another one of our comrades, is also an earth bender. There are also fire benders, who can control fire, and some have the ability to bend lightning as well. Three of our comrades, General Iroh, Fire Lord Zuko, Jeong Jeong and Azula are fire benders. Finally, air benders have the ability to control air. There is only one air bender left in our world, and he is also the Avatar, which means he is the only person that can bend all four elements, and his name is Aang. He is one of our comrades as well. When he dies, he will be reincarnated into the next generation for all of time. At least that's how it normally works. Now that we're in a different world, I fear that could change. We also have two other comrades who do not use bending. Piandao is a swordsmanship master and Tai Lee is a master in hand to hand combat. Finally we have two animal companions, a winged lemur by the name of Momo and a flying bison by the name of Appa."
"I'm afraid I haven't heard of any of them, however, I'd be willing to keep an eye and ear out and aid you in your search for them. Are you strong?" he asked, looking each one over. If he was surprised by anything he had learned, even the flying animals, he did not show it.
"Hell yea, I'm the second best earth bender in the world. I think the only one that might be stronger than me is Earth King Bumi. Plus, Pakku's one of the strongest water benders in the world, and he personally trained both Katara and Aang. Sokka and Mai are no slouches either, especially considering I had to fight the chick a couple of times," Toph said. Sokka nodded, remembering the times he and the Aang Gang were forced to fight Azula and her former sidekicks.
"Earth King? You also mentioned a Fire Lord, what do those titles mean?" Law questioned, ignoring the comment about fighting the girl, he would ask later.
"Our world is divided into four nations, one for each element. The Fire Nation is led by the Fire Lord. The Earth Kingdom is led by the Earth King. The Water Tribes are led by the Tribal Chief. The Air Nomads were led by the Four Councils of Elders, however the air nomads were killed out 100 years ago, which is why Aang is the Last Airbender," Pakku explained.
"Earth King Bumi and Fire Lord Zuko were both present when we were transported here. A trial was underway, in which Zuko was the primary judge, however the Order of the White Lotus, which is an international organization for peace to which General Iroh, Earth King Bumi, Piandao, Jeong Jeong, and I belonged, were also present. Avatar Aang and his… advisors, Sokka, Katara, and Toph, along with their animal friends were present as well. The subject of the trial was Azula, Fire Lord Zuko's biological sister, who was being held on multiple counts of genocide and murder. The trial was to decide how to properly handle her. Tai Lee and Mai were present, because they were her former advisors and fighters, however during the middle of the war, they switched sides. They were going to be let off with a minor warning, while the decision for Azula was torn between permanent incarceration without the possibility of parole and having Aang take her bending away, a gift bestowed to him as the Avatar, and placing her in a psychiatric facility with the possibility of parole on good behavior after she reached the age of 75. Fire Lord Zuko was the proposer of the first option, and Avatar Aang was the proposer of the second."
Law nodded at them. So, not only were they strong, but they were quite obviously smart and knew how to handle various situations without the use of fighting. That also explained Toph's earlier comment about fighting the girl.
"What were your opinions on the matter?" he asked, curious about their natures.
Toph scoffed, "I wanted her locked up for good. She did so much evil for no reason. She didn't deserve her bending and she sure as hell didn't deserve parole, no matter how much time has passed."
Sokka nodded, his face turning serious, "I agreed with Zuko. Azula did too much damage to be able to let off as easily as Aang wanted to let her off." Law noticed that he spoke of both without their titles, opposite of the old man before him. Perhaps he knew them on a more personal level. Pakku had said he and Toph were this Avatar's advisors, which means he must have put faith in their opinions.
"I believed in Avatar Aang's option. As someone who has witnessed the devastation the Great War has led to, I believed laying the violence and hatred to rest would be the best course of action. However, realistically speaking, I think it would have ended in a compromise. It would most likely have left Azula in a psychiatric facility without her bending or the option of parole. However, Aang would have insisted that instead of parole, if improvement was shown, he would give her her bending back," Pakku said, laying his wisdom there.
Mai just sighed, "I had no say in the matter, but if it was up to me, I would have agreed with Aang. Azula, although definitely evil, didn't grow up in the best environment, given who her father was. The only reason Zuko ended up better than she did is because he had his Uncle Iroh to help guide him. Azula's childhood led her to become power hungry and mentally insane. I no longer consider her either an ally or a friend, I do however, pity her, after spending so much time by her side and seeing her deteriorate before my eyes."
Sokka and Toph stared at her with open mouths. For one thing, they had never heard her speak so much before, and for another, they had never thought about it like that. She really wasn't given a choice in anything.
"I see. Azula was the woman you mentioned earlier that would not hesitate to kill any who step in her way, correct?" Law asked.
"Yes," Sokka nodded, tearing his attention away from Mai to look at Law.
"Well then, Ponytail-ya, if she does do any of the widespread damage you predict, then it will certainly show up in the papers. If you agree to lend my crew your strength and join, then I will assist you in finding your comrades," he said.
"What kind of crew?" Sokka questioned. "And what the hell is Ponytail-ya?!"
"I'm a pirate of course," Law said, sitting back, placing his hands behind his head and smiling at them.
"OH NO. I've dealt with pirate before, they tried to kill Katara, Aang, and I!" Sokka said, pointing a finger accusingly at Law.
"Relax, I won't make you do anything you don't want. Plus, what other choice do you have?" he said, looking at the four of them in the eye, even Toph, who was staring right back at him contemplatively.
"If we see one sign that you're going to try to use us for something we don't believe in, we'll be gone faster than you can imagine," Toph said, glaring at him. This was different than her earlier threats, he noticed. This was far more serious, and her words carried far more meaning in them. He decided to answer her just as seriously as she answered him.
"Of course, I understand. No pirate would truly be a pirate if she did not do what she wanted," he said, facing her. He guessed that she used her bending to sense her surroundings, so he knew she could tell he was facing her.
With a nod of assent from her, Mai just wove her hand and mumbled a "Whatever" at him. Pakku eyed him once more before nodding, and finally Sokka's serious face relaxed as he, too, hesitantly nodded his assent. They may not be allies of choice, but they were allies of convenience. After all, he was right, there wasn't really anything else they could do.
...
Okay! Now all of the characters have new allies and a place in the One Piece World. By the way, in the One Piece time line, it's after Thriller Bark but before Sabaody. However, I am probably going to add some time between the two arcs to set the scene a little more. The Straw Hats and Heart Pirates will probably stop at another island or two before arriving to Sabaody. Also, no one knows about Ace's capture or Blackbeard's status yet. If I remember right, it's revealed in Sabaody, and even if it's not that way in the canon, that's how it'll be announced here. Okay, now that that's done, tell me what ya think!