Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Avatar: The Last Airbender. They are owned by Mashima Hiro and Viacom respectively. This was written just for fun, not profit.
About Five minutes later Natsu arrived at the base of the wall. "Jeez, did I really say I was gonna climb this thing?" he wheezed, already tired from his flat-out sprint from the area he'd appeared in. He still had yet to fully recover after Tenroujima. "No use in complaining, that's sure not gonna help me now." he said as he eyed the massive wall, it had to be at least ninety meters tall.
"What a real winner this idea's turning out to be, God I wish someone smart like Lucy was here!" at that he paused. "Where is Lucy? Where is anyone?" He pushed the thought away as he prepared to scale the wall. Jumping up, Natsu punched the fairly smooth surface as hard as he could, sinking his fist a few inches in. Using his newly improvised hand-hold, he raised himself up and delivered another punch with his free hand. Following that pattern, Natsu made his way up the side of the wall in about twenty minutes. He paused just before slipping over the wall's parapet to make sure no guards were patrolling nearby, after pulling himself up, Natsu gave a low appreciative whistle at the view before him.
The city sprawled before him was massive; at least six whole Magnolias could have fit into it with room to spare. There were two ring-like walls, each separating the city into three levels. The first and lowest level appeared to be some sort of slum. All of the buildings were colored an ungainly mottled green or brown, and cramped so close together they could hardly be told apart. The buildings standing closest to the first dividing wall looked to be in significantly less disrepair than those further away. While the structures closest to the middle-outer wall that Natsu had just climbed, seemed to be the worst off, many of which were simple, and constructed against the wall itself to save space and building materials. The streets were all poorly cobbled or just plain dirt, and barely supported a single lane of traffic. Raised above this, was the middle level. Far neater, and less cramped than the lowest level, the middle level had the look and feel of a dense suburb. It contained wide perfect roads that evenly divided all of the well-spaced buildings, providing adequate room for carts and foot traffic. The colors displayed in this section were much more vibrant than those of the lower level, introducing several blues and some gold, in addition to different, much less repugnant, greens and browns. There were street lamps illuminating every corner, and even small leisure parks scattered around the various neighborhoods. None of this, however, compared to the last and smallest level of the city. Raised high above all, the upper level appeared to be by far the most lavish of the three, containing all manner of structures and colors ranging from extravagant to gaudy. It obviously served as a haven for the city's wealthiest inhabitants, at its center was the Royal Palace. Rising high above the other homes and buildings, it dominated the skyline with it's odd cubic design. Hanging on the outside walls of the palace were several massive tapestries depicting the same Golden circle that Natsu had seen on the uniformed men from earlier. Criss-crossing the entire city was a series of raised monorail tracks supported by arching pillars of rock, and what appeared to be small trains running along them.
Natsu cringed at the small trains, his stomach already growing queasy at the mere sight of a vehicle of transportation. Suddenly, Natsu heard a loud pop similar to that of a lit firework. Turning around to locate the source of the disturbance, he spotted a signal flare lazily arching high above the fields in the air. Following the flare's smoking trail down to it's point of origin, Natsu could see several figures moving around in the area illuminated below it. No doubt a search party must have found the unconscious bodies of the two men he'd dispatched earlier and released the flare to signal an emergency.
"No time to be gawking, I'd better move it." he said, taking a cautious step towards the edge of the opposing parapet. Natsu sized up his descent, and chose a path that appeared to lead down the wall into a narrow alley between two houses. After scrambling over the edge, he hung himself off it with nothing below, save ninety meters of empty space. "Alright, I've fallen off bigger, no prob, no prob!" He reassured himself before letting go, Natsu fell a little more than halfway before realizing the rear of the alley he'd aimed for was filled to the brim with an assortment of wooden boxes and barrels. Barely forming a syllable he slammed full-force into the pile, breaking everything below him and scattering dust and debris in all directions. At the sound of the disturbance, animals from all parts of the surrounding area began a loud uproar that awoke most if not all of the people living there.
Natsu sprinted out of the alley while clutching his sore splinter-ridden backside. In a mocking tone, he muttered "I've fallen off bigger! No prob! WELL THERE'S DEFINETLY A PROBLEM WHEN I'VE GOT SPLINTERS THE SIZE OF TREES IN MY ASS!" clearly screaming the last part, he stopped to quiet himself and yank out a few of the larger offenders before continuing his flight.
Sometime later Natsu halted his run and hid in another alley, placing his back against a wall, he slid down it into a low crouch, Despite the enticing smell of food emanating from somewhere near the alleyway Natsu was lost in thought as he tried to piece together the events that took place during the incident on Tenroujima. Finding no real conclusion that explained his presence in this foreign land, Natsu scowled and punched the cobblestone floor of the alley in frustration. "And where the hell is the magical power? I should be sensing someone or something in a city as big as this! There isn't even a single lacrima!"
Just then a door opened to his right on the opposite side of the alley. Through the open door wafted the odors of various foods, marking the building as a restaurant, and making Natsu's stomach growl. Out of the door strode a squat older man with a plate of what appeared to be leftovers. Detecting he was not alone in the alley, the old man turned to Natsu with a look of surprise. "Why hello there!" the old man said cheerfully. "How has one so young as yourself come to bare such a bitter face?"
"I'm uh, lost" was Natsu's reply.
"Well that is a predicament!" the old man replied while thoughtfully stroking his spikey beard. "Would you like something to eat?" At the mention of food the young man's eyes drifted hungrily down to the plate in the friendly stranger's hand. Seeing this, the old man chuckled, "Are you so hungry you'd eat this plate of scraps?" he asked incredulously. "I'm sorry but they are not for you." Seeing the youths eyes turn downward in disappointment, he smiled ruefully. "I have found however, that a nice cup of jasmine tea and a hot bowl of noodles can alleviate even the darkest mood. You are more than welcome to some, if you'd care to be me and my nephew's guest." He said, gesturing towards the door.
Perking back up, Natsu said "Thanks old man! Y'know you really had me going for a second there!" Smiling, he jumped to his feet and brushed himself off before entering the proffered door. Pausing in the doorway, Natsu turned around to see the old man set the plate of food on the ground by several holes in the alley wall. After a few seconds, a small group of odd kitten-gerbil creatures exited the holes and started nibbling at the food. "This old man seems pretty nice, I can probably trust him." he thought, while holding the door open for his host.
"Ah, thank you my boy" said the old man as he entered the door. "It's always refreshing to meet young people with proper manners!" The old man ushered Natsu towards a table and sat him down, suddenly a man with a managerial air about him stormed out of the back of the kitchen.
"Mushi!" the man shouted. "Who is that, a customer? We're closed!"
"Oye is he bothering you mister?" whispered Natsu. "Cause I can-" but he was cut off as the old man waved a hand.
"Oh no, sir this is merely an old friend who's stopped by to catch up over some tea and noodles!" the old man (presumably Mushi) replied, turning to give Natsu a wink.
"Ah, well don't let these visits become a habit, you hear? I'm only allowing this because you're our star tea maker, be sure to lock up when you leave!" With that, the stern-looking man left out the alley door, muttering about giving people inches and them taking miles.
Just as the man left, a very serious-looking teenager walked out of the kitchen doorway. "Uncle, what's with all the commotion? Are you giving free meals to commoners again?" he said as his gaze fell on Natsu.
"Lee, come meet our guest!" said Mushi, grabbing the boy by the arm and leading him over to Natsu's table.
The unfortunate teen now snared in Mushi's surprisingly strong grip had a mess of dark spiky hair and wore a bored, mildly irritated expression on his face. However, his most distinguishing physical feature was the large scar that marred the skin around his left eye.
"This is my nephew Lee. He may seem grumpy, but he has a good heart. So why don't you two get to know each other while I get the food?" Mushi leaned in closer to Natsu and whispered "He doesn't really have any friends his age." Causing the Fire Dragonslayer to stifle a laugh.
"I'm right here uncle." Lee deadpanned. He turned to Natsu, who was struggling to suppress his laughter. Lee fixed him with a glare before taking the seat across from him. "The name's Lee, what's yours?"
"Uh, Natsu Dragneel" Natsu answered.
"Dragneel… that's a very strange surname you have there." said Lee.
Mushi left the sitting area chuckling at both of the youths lack of civil grace, and went into the kitchen to get the food and beverages.
"Really?" said Natsu. He didn't find the name strange at all, what with names like Fullbuster, Redfox, and McGarden floating around the guild. "My Father gave it to me."
"He must have been an interesting man." Said Mushi, as he carried over three cups of tea and a steaming bowl of noodles in broth. Setting the bowl in front of Natsu, he took the seat next to Lee and sipped some of his tea watching the youth tear into the food with gusto.
"Thanks for the noodles old man!" Natsu said between mouthfuls.
"You're very welcome! Please, call me Mushi."
Grinning like an idiot Natsu said, "You should know, my father wasn't a man Mister Mushi, he was a dragon!" Causing his host to nearly choke mid-sip.
"A dragon?!" Mushi sputtered past his tea, trading an incredulous glance with his nephew. "There hasn't been a dragon around for decades! Surely you jest!"
"Decades?" said Natsu. "But Igneel only disappeared seven years ago…" As Natsu pondered Mushi's revelation, suddenly he remembered his fight with Archnologia. "Well, me and my guild just fought with a dragon before I got lost!"
"That's simply not possible," Mushi stated. "long ago men hunted dragons for sport and renown. The last dragon in recorded history was slain about forty years ago.
"People killed all the dragons!?" Natsu said, shock clearly written on his face. "Who?!" he demanded, as a hard edge entered his voice.
Sensing that the death of dragons was a touchy subject, Mushi quickly steered the conversation in a different direction. "Wait a minute now, you said your guild fought with a dragon right? What is a guild?"
"Don't you know what a guild is? It's an organization of mages! We take on job requests for payment." Said Natsu, now clearly confused.
Mushi and Lee both blinked, "mages?" they said together.
"Do you mean like mercenaries?" Lee offered.
"They're better than mercenaries! They use magic! "
Lee just stared at Natsu like he was some kind of bug.
Mushi frowned, "Natsu, magic is merely fantasy. You're aware it cannot possibly be real, correct?" he said with a concerned look.
"What do you mean magic's not real!?...wait a minute." A realization began to form in Natsu's mind. "I just showed up here out of nowhere, I can't sense any magic power, and these guys just said magic isn't real!" Finding only one reasonable explanation for all of this, Natsu guessed that he was no longer in his own world. Just like when he was drawn through the Anima into Edolas. Seeking more evidence Natsu tentatively asked, "Hey, what do you guys call this place? It's Earthland right? Do you know where the kingdom of Fiore is?
"I'm sorry, I've never heard of a kingdom of Fiore." Mushi said apologetically. "There are only four world territories: the Earth Kingdom, where we currently are now. the northern and southern water tribes, and The Fire Nation (Lee stiffened at that name). There are also the abandoned temples and lands of the Air Nomads, however there is no Fiore."
"I've never heard this Earthland name before either" Lee said, convinced he and his uncle were sitting across from a raving lunatic. He decided to retreat completely from the conversation.
Hearing this, Natsu smacked his fist down onto his palm and victoriously declared "I knew it!" Somehow, Natsu had been sucked into a new world. One without magic no less. "But if there's no magic what were those guys who attacked me using?" he wondered aloud.
"You were attacked?"
Suddenly re-aware of his hosts, Natsu cast a glance over to Mushi who had spoken. "Yeah two guys just attacked me for no reason outside the city wall." He then recounted his fight with the two pointy-hatted weirdos, excluding the part where he came from a different world and used magic.
"The men you described sound like the Dai Li, the city's elite secret police force." Mushi said, skeptically.
"Sure, I guess" said Natsu, not really interested in the name.
"Oh yeah, then how did you do it?" Lee demanded, giving the conversation some more attention.
Dodging the question, Natsu turned to Mushi and said "I don't suppose you guys have a map do you?"
"Why yes, I believe there is one inside my bag, allow me." Mushi said, getting up and walking back into the kitchen.
"You still haven't answered my question." Lee said, eye's Narrowed. "How could you defeat highly trained earth benders like the Dai Li while unarmed?"
"What's an earth bander?" Natsu said with a constipated look on his face.
Lee opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted as Mushi reemerged with a rolled parchment in his hands. "Here you are." Mushi said, spreading out the map on the table for Natsu to read. Curiously, all of the lands depicted on the map were color-coded tan, grey, blue, or red.
Unable to make heads or tails of the map, Natsu asked Mushi for a quick overview. He showed Natsu vaguely where the borders of the three countries were, and where Natsu's current location in the Earth Kingdom was.. Natsu finished the rest of his meal in relative silence, every now and again trading polite banter with Mushi while further dodging Lee's questions. Giving up, Lee sat quietly giving Natsu the stink-eye. After finishing his meal, Natsu stood up and fished inside his pockets for money, pulling out a handful of Fiore currency. He sorted out two silver coins and handed them to Mushi. "Thanks again for the food. I hope this is enough to cover it."
After saying his goodbyes, Natsu walked down the street and turned a corner, once out of sight he broke into a run, this time towards the west wall of the city. "This place might not have magic but the people still seem pretty nice." He thought.
"I can't believe you let that lunatic in here, he was clearly deranged!" Lee remarked. "Babbling about fighting Dai Li, non-existent kingdoms, and magic, I'm surprised he hasn't been incarcerated by now."
"I'm not so sure." Mushi said cryptically, studying one of the coins Natsu had given him. On the side of the foreign currency was a depiction of a strange palace out of which rose many impossibly thin towers, and mysterious runes were inscribed all along the edges of the coin. The only legible part of the inscription was on the reverse side, below some sort of crest. The inscription read: "Fiore year 705."
Once again in the slums at the base of the large inner wall, Natsu found another alley full of discarded wooden boxes and barrels. Arranging a few similarly sized boxes in a row, he lay down on top of them like the homeless back in magnolia used to do. As sleep eluded him, his mind slowly turned towards the current state of his situation. "How, the hell am I gonna get back?" Tired of all the intense thinking he'd been doing recently, Natsu decided he'd just go with the flow and explore this new world for a bit while he searched for the answer. Maybe he'd go to that Fire Nation place across the sea to the west, it sounded pleasant enough. Maybe he'd even find some delicious Fire-Foods there. With his mind now a little more at ease, he managed to settle into a peaceful slumber.
The next day, outside Ba Sing Se's outer wall:
Over the barren wasteland to the southwest of Ba Sing Se, a small shadow was sailing over the parched earth towards the city. Riding the air currents on his glider-staff, Aang was clad in the orange and yellow robes of his people, the ancient Air Nomads. The twelve year old boy's head was shaven, revealing the blue arrow that wound all over his body, marking him as an Air bending master. For the first time in what felt like years he was Exited and hopeful, wearing a grin on his face. His elation was due to the prospect of being reunited with one of his most precious friends, Appa, his Flying Bison, who had been kidnapped and sold by sand benders while Aang and Co. had sought valuable information inside Wan Shi Tong's library. Following a lead that Appa had been sold to one of the merchants in Ba Sing Se, he and his friends had overcome many challenges on their way to the city. The most recent of which was escorting a young couple across the Serpent's Path. After crossing the treacherous pass Aang and his friends finally drew within sight of Ba Sing Se's large outer wall. Trying to waste as little time as possible, Aang and his pet Flying Lemur Momo took off ahead of their group to start looking for Appa within the city's walls.
However, as Aang neared his destination, he discovered to his dismay, a gigantic Fire Nation drill moving slowly and purposefully toward the outer wall. It had a massive segmented body, which moved by extending it's front section and shooting spikes into the ground, using them to drag it's immense bulk forward. To make matters worse the drill was escorted by a convoy of roughly sixteen Fire Nation tanks. Upset at being further impeded in his mission, Aang turned around to notify his friends of the impending danger. Appa would have to wait.
Ba Sing Se base of the inner wall:
Natsu awoke the next day in a daze, "Lucy, why do you always set your alarm clock for six o' clock?! Human beings get up at noon!" He mumbled. After waking up a bit more, he sat up and stretched his sore back. Sniffing the air he picked up the scent of a decent amount of fire somewhere. Following the scent, he was led to a house with a smoking chimney. Checking to see none of the houses inhabitants were around, he quickly leaned in through the window and devoured the flames inside the fireplace. After his meal Natsu ran back over to the wall and used his punch-climbing technique from the night before. After dropping down to the other side, he ran through the fields to the base of the far outer wall and began climbing.
On top of the outer wall:
"Are you sure you don't want our help?"
"I assure you avatar, the fire nation cannot penetrate this wall. Many have tried to breach through it. But none have succeeded." Said general Sung.
What about the Dragon of the West? He got in." Tophe, Aang's Blind 12 year old earth bending instructor and companion, said flatly.
"W-well technically yes…" Sung stammered. "But he was quickly expunged! Nonetheless that is why the city is named Ba Sing Se, it means the impenetrable city." Smiling he said "They don't call it Na Sing Se!..." At the sight of the blank look on her face he added "That means the penetrable city."
Annoyed, Tophe said "That's great and all but we still got the drill problem.
"Not to worry, I've sent an elite platoon called the Terra Team to resolve the issue." Sung assured them.
"That's a good group name." Aang's other companion, Sokka, remarked. "Very Catchy."
Below the wall the Terra Team rushed forward, flipping one of the fire nation tanks in their headlong rush towards the drill. Forming three groups the men created three large spikes of earth, which they wedged against the hull in an effort to slow the Machine down. For a moment the spikes held fast, but soon crumbled when the segmented hull began to shift forward. As the Terra team avoided being pelted with shards of earth, two girls exited the drill. The first, a tall gloomy girl named Mai pinned the Terra Team under a heavy torrent of throwing knives while the second girl, a bouncy air-headed ex-circus performer named Ty Lee darted behind their defenses. Using some mysterious Martial art she quickly and efficiently disabled each member of the platoon, striking their pressure points and rendering their bending useless.
"WE'RE DOOMED!" Sung screamed while flailing his arms.
Spinning Sung around Sokka slapped him in the face shouting "Get a hold of yourself man!"
"Right, I'm sorry" he apologized.
Tensing, Tophe felt a disturbance amongst the vibrations in the ground. "Hey! General Crybaby, something is climbing the other side of the wall, it's almost here!"
"Impossible!" Sung declared. "This wall is one hundred meters tall, with-"
"Over there!" she cried pointing to a section of wall. Every member of team avatar faced the walls edge where Tophe had pointed and assumed ready stances while General Sung and the soldiers just stood confused.
Clearing the wall, Natsu disregarded everyone on top and ran to the other side. As he took in the view, he noticed the huge Fire Nation drill making its way towards the outer wall. Turning to the flabbergasted people all around him, he pointed at the drill with a grin and yelled, "HEY, THAT LOOKS LIKE THE THING ERZA KEEPS IN HER UNDERWEAR DRAWER!
AN: I'm going to enjoy writing the next part, fighting is much more interesting than dialogue in my opinion. Speaking of fighting if you're into action/war I highly recommend my all-time favorite series: Vagrant Soldier Ares. It's a Korean Graphic novel (Man Hwa/ Manga format) with a lot of amazing fights plus a very interesting art style and a well-written story. I don't think there are any physical copies left but the scans are still up on different sites if you're bored. Well, take care you guys I'll try to pull my thumb out of my ass and write this next part in a more expedient manner.
-BodyByRoshi