And so we begin the next phase of the fanfiction! Sorry for the delay, but I'm back in action after writing my one-shot.
Here's Chapter 8
Ba Sing Se
A week and a half before the Battle of the Southern Water Tribe...
"I would like to introduce you to my new boss," Lea hunched over as he turned to the short, older man dressed in fine green silks watching over the patrons. His smile felt warm, genuine, which reminded Riku briefly of Sora...no, that wasn't right. The radiant vibrancy in his smile was betrayed by his complicated eyes: experience and wisdom emanated from his gaze, as well as hurt and sorrow, but was quelled by love and acceptance. This man has most likely endured and overcame as much as Riku, if not more. Riku felt great empathy and even a tang of jealousy for the man's sense of overflowing peace, but he felt that he could trust him, as if some of his prosperity would rub off on him.
Don't think such things, Riku. You'll only hurt yourself. But Riku couldn't help but crack a warm smile around the man.
"Hey boss," Lea set a hand on his hip and leaned, "this was the guy I was talking about."
"Ah yes, you must be Riku. It's a pleasure," he placed his hands into a bow, Riku returning the sign of respect.
"So I hear you are a friend of Lea's. Are you also," Iroh leaned in and nudged Riku's side and whispered, "a firebender."
"A fire-what…?" but Lea covered his mouth before he could continue.
"No, no, I met him while I traveled the Earth Kingdom for a while. I don't know what he is," he took Riku to the side.
"Just hang tight and everything will be explained. You better get it memorized."
Lea then pushed Riku away and recomposed himself.
"But yeah, my friend Riku here would have no problem at all with helping to clean up the shop. I can guarantee that he's a good worker."
"Hey, wait a m-" Lea covered up his face again.
"He can start working immediately, although I should explain to him the basics," Lea smiled.
"Well," Iroh laughed wholeheartedly and patted Riku on the back," It's a pleasure to have you with us. After Lea trains you, we can start with you cleaning up the ostrich horse pen. Those carriages don't pull themselves and they have to stay somewhere." Iroh laughed, waving a hand in front of his nose.
"B-but…" Lea covers Riku's mouth up again.
"He'd love to. I'll whip him into shape! Come on, pal!" and Riku is dragged to a corner of the shop. Lea sits him down.
"What the hell was all that about?" Riku glared, "We're here on a mission, not to serve people tea."
"This is the mission, blockhead," Lea leaned in, keeping his voice low, "If there's anything strange going on in Ba-Sing-Se inside or even outside the walls, he will know about it. Supposedly, he was some kind of old firebending master with a lot of connections to this world's information system."
"But more importantly, I hear his nephew is the Fire Lord and has even trained the Avatar, so I thought I could find some leads as to the Avatar's location if I stuck around. Besides, this isn't the first time I had to serve tea to someone."
"I'm afraid to ask, but who else did you serve tea to?" Riku asked.
"...my old boss…"
"Meaning?"
"...Xemnas," Lea sighed.
"YOU had to serve tea to Xemnas," Riku laughed tauntingly, "wait, don't tell me! You had to warm it up too."
"Well, I can create flames with my chakrams…" Riku chuckled as Lea fumbled on his words.
"Look, I was trying to stay on the old boss' side and not all of my missions were successful. Besides, I managed to get a lot of information without needing to kiss up to him though my...work."
"Yeah…" Riku crossed his arms, "so, what have you been doing since you've been here? And what exactly is 'firebending'?"
"Everything will be made clear if you hear my story," Lea recomposed himself, "the story of how I met Iroh."
A few months ago…
In the dead of night, a portal of darkness opened as Lea stepped through in his Organization XIII uniform into the city of Ba-Sing-Se. The alley remained abandoned, with only a few lanterns in the distance providing any light. A faint wind carried the sound of hushed voices, grabbing the newcomer's attention. Two men stood at the end of the alley, dressed suspiciously.
"Did you see that?" Lea could make out a man's voice.
"He shouldn't be here," another voice answered.
Crap, they discovered me. I should've arrived somewhere else!
Lea was ready to make his escape, but the silhouettes moved in the opposite direction, towards another target. Curious, Lea quickly snuck behind a corner near the alleyway exit to get a better view. The two men from earlier came up to a cabbage stand in the distance, where a bearded man stood hunched over the produce.
"Hey, you. What are you doing here?" one of the men asked. Lea quickly caught on that they were some kind of officials.
"Do you have a permit to be selling those in the upper ring?" the other man moved closer. The man didn't respond, but turned towards them, his head staring at the floor.
"Sir, I'm afraid you'll have to come with us," one of the officers grabbed his hand, but the man pulled away.
"My...MY CABBAGES!" the cabbage man's voice rasped as he attacked one of the officers. Darkness surrounded the cabbage man's hands as he strangled the officer with one hand, knocking away the other officer with incredible force with his other hand. Shadow brand Heartless began appearing from around the three figures, but rather than attacking the humans, the Heartless were absorbed into the cabbage man. The darkness spread into the strangled officer, his body shaking in agony before hunching over. in submission The cabbage man then let go of the officer, and the two men turned menacingly towards the officer's companion, who was coughing up blood on the floor.
The officer and cabbage man walked towards him, the officer drawing a weapon at his friend, a low moan coming from them. Lea was stunned, but knew that if he didn't act, the third man stood no chance. Lea jumped out into the alleyway, summoning his Keyblade into hand as fire emulated from the hilt.
"A...a firebender!" the officer on the ground exclaimed. Lea decided to turn down the flames a little; Yen Sid wouldn't be happy with him if he started burning civilians on his first assignment now.
"I've seen Dusks look more threatening than you two lugs," Lea smirked as he dodged the cabbage man's lunge, delivering a swift blow to the back of the cabbage man's head to knock him out. Meanwhile, the corrupted guard jumped back and earthbended the ground, chucking a rock at the distracted Lea.
"Whoa," Lea stretched his body to the side, barely dodging the flying hunk of rock.
"That's some fancy magic you've got in this world. Although this is nothing compared to training with Lexaeus," Lea smirked as the earthbending guard sent another rock at him. Instead of dodging, Lea summoned an ice attack, intercepting and shattering the rock effectively.
"I-ice now?!" the on looking guard on the ground exclaimed.
"Crap," Lea sighed, "can't have him blabbing about that. Guess I'll have to do this the fun way."
Lea charged the earthbender, dodging another incoming rock by sweeping underneath it before quickly getting up and thrusting the keyblade at the man's stomach. Cringing, Lea struck the earthbender on the back of the head, scaring the Heartless out. The Shadow tried to get away, but Lea struck it down with a swift swing of his Keyblade.
He turned to the guard on the floor, but the man was already running off in fear.
"Great, now I'm going to have to deal with him, aren't I?" Lea sighed. Just as he was about to go, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Leave my cabbages ALONE!" the cabbage man tried to strangle the pyro, but his hands suddenly loosened as the possessed body slumped forward. Lea shook him off immediately and turned around, the cabbage man falling to the floor; behind him stood a short, stubby older man.
"Thanks," Lea said simply.
Shit, first the guard and now this old man?! I was never this bad when I was in the Organization…
Then, Lea's eyes widened. A Shadow was trying to get away. He was about to strike it down, but the old man stopped him.
"Allow me," the man breathed in deeply, and with an exhale, breathed fire at the Shadow. The fire glowed golden, encasing itself around the Shadow, trapping it, but also quelling it. The shadow dissipated, the golden embers fading away with it into the darkness of night.
"Rest in peace, tainted spirit," the man bowed in respect. Then he turned to Lea.
"I see you're a firebender as well. It's dangerous to practice firebending in the Earth Kingdom. The people are still suspicious of firebenders, even after the Avatar restored balance."
"But, I understand why you did," he smiled, "I am Iroh, a simple tea maker in Ba Sing Se." Iroh bowed. Lea returned his courtesy, feeling at peace with the old man.
"Lea," he said.
"And that's the story," Lea laid back in his chair.
"Wait a minute. So you're saying the people here can practice magic without a weapon?" Riku inquired.
"Not exactly," Lea stared at the ceiling, "they don't create the elements artificially like we do. Rather, they bend them from their environment or create them from their bodies."
"Hmm…" Riku pondered on this point.
"So this is the lug you brought in?" a sassy voice echoed across the room. A teenage girl, as tall as Kairi, leaned against the doorpost, dressed in ragged green garbs covered in dirt. Her eyes were pale, her smile cocky, and it took Riku a second to realize she wasn't wearing any shoes.
The customers stared for a second, but went back to their business as if the girl's appearance was commonplace.
"As I promised," Lea didn't move, but grinned nonetheless, "the 'fresh meat' you were looking for."
"Hmm…" she paused, "well, we might as well see how good he is." Without warning, she hurtled three pebbles at his face. Riku quickly deflected them with his forearm, sending them into the wall mere inches away from a customer, who flinched in fear.
"Not bad," she crossed her arms, "I like this guy."
"Umm...who is she exactly, Axel?" Riku looked disturbed.
"It's Lea, I've told you a million times."
"Sorry, Lea, but it's her name I want to know," Riku rebutted, "And what is this calling me 'fresh meat' now?"
"I'll explain later. This is Toph, an earthbending master. She might be blind, but she learned from a young age how to see using the vibrations from her earthbending. Compared to her, we're the blind ones."
"And what's with the pebbles?" Riku crossed his arms.
"You can stop talking as if I'm not in the room," Toph crossed over to their table, "And I wanted to see how good your earthbending was. I even rigged those pebbles with a little metal."
"My what?"
"You didn't know?" Toph looked confused, "You're obviously an earthbender."
"Wait a minute," Riku held out his hand, "how do you even know that?"
"Simple. If you could stop those pebbles, you have good reflexes. If you can deflect the pebbles, then you're an earthbender. And with how fast and far you deflected them, you're a potential metalbender at that too," Toph earthbended a seat and sat in between Riku and Lea.
"OK then. Let's assume I wasn't an earthbender and I didn't have good reflexes. What then?" Riku folded his hands.
"You'd probably have a few good bruises and I'd have a good laugh," she earthbended a reclined back to her earthbended seat and put her feet on the table, "I used to do it by chucking boulders instead, but you don't want to get on Iroh's bad side."
Riku stared blankly.
"Hey, Axel. How about you make the stranger and me some tea?" she said.
"It's Lea," Lea stared daggers at Riku, "Well, at least I could've been nicknamed something worse." He trudged off towards the kitchen.
"I'll have to keep trying then," Toph yelled at him before turning to Riku.
"So you really didn't know," she stated, "yet I can tell you've fought a lot."
"...you can say that," Riku looked away.
"I've been looking for some fresh meat since I left the Metalbending Academy. I had plenty of people to teach back there, but not enough hands to teach them. I was hoping to find some talent by traveling, hopefully a fast learner who can pick up metalbending quickly, so I've been testing everyone I met."
"So have you found anyone?" Riku asked.
"Other than you, no. I found plenty of earthbenders who passed the test, but none of them succeeded with metalbending when I'd follow up. They'd need a few years before they could be useful as teachers."
"I see," Riku smirked.
"Don't get cocky yet," she noticed Lea coming back with the tea, "I have another test. Axel!"
"It's Lea," he grumbled, setting down the tea.
"I'm going to test the runt. Get me the box."
It might take me some time, but I'll have Chapter 9 out as soon as I can. As always, see you next time.