#metea

I find it really cool how Zuko’s relationship with Iroh can be told with tea. It’s so important that both the very first and the very last scene of Zuko and Iroh together features tea.

Zuko starts out pretty dismissive of Iroh’s idea to share tea

To the point of assaulting Iroh’s tea

Then he realizes how important Iroh tea is

He tries to understand Iroh tea (but misses the mark by a mile)

He slowly learns from Iroh about tea

He even almost fully accepts Iroh tea and acknowledges his its influence in his life

But he loses his way, and he tries life with his sister and father with komodo chicken instead of Iroh tea 

When he steps on the path of redemption he tries to channel Iroh remember how to make decent tea

All culminating in a moment when he takes time out from the busy job of Firelording to be with Iroh go serve tea

Grabs Heidi out of bed by her hair. "You're late. You have an assignment."

"Ow. owowowowow—" Heidi just was placed in bed after being thoroughly beaten and she's already being assigned something. "A—Auntie Metea—"

"That's just Metea to you when there is work involved. Now, get up and heal quickly. We need you in tip-top shape for this assassination request." She'll at least report that the reason of lateness is excused, given Heidi's beaten position.

"Y—yes ma'am."

"..."

Arceus' ???? Heidi is fully healed.

Looks like Heidi got some assistance.

"..." Heidi quickly changed into her uniform. "...still worth it."

"What was that?"

Heidi looked down at the floor and brushed herself off. It was her favorite time of year again…. The month where she can dress up to be the scariest thing that she thought of, where the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred. Heidi had so many ideas this time around. Maybe she should appear as the new Friede, or as Izanami again, or there could be something else….

"Mommy! Mommy look!"

Heidi turned around. She could hear Lati flying across the room to her. Heidi turned around and held her arms out. "Alright, baby what's—"

Heidi nearly flinched upon seeing what Lati was dressed as this year, and that caused her to nearly lose her footing when the little one slammed into her.

"Mommy! Look!" Lati smiled at her mother.

"...I'm looking. Why… why do you look like Mama Nergal, baby? Did Mama Nergal say that you can do that?"

"Uh-huh! Mama Nergal say that it's Pokéween and I can look like someone else cool."

Heidi giggled. "So, you dressed up like your Mama, huh? I'm almost jealous that it wasn't me."

"Oh? Dress like Mommy?" Lati gave it some thought. "Oh! Maybe I can dress like Mommy next time. Mommy cool too!"

Heidi transformed to her older form so that she could reach the 7-foot tall stature. She then rubbed Lati's scalp. "Maybe, though if you keep that up, I'm sure daddy is gonna wanna be after me, too."

Lati giggled. Maybe she should dress as Rayquaza for Pokéween after her mom.

Heidi transformed back to her Arceus form and grabbed Lati's hand. "Alright. So, if you look like Mama Nergal, then what does Mama Nergal look… like…." Heidi stopped as she felt a surge of power course through her.

As Heidi was finishing from recoiling from the energy, she saw someone slowly climb up the stairs. She was a short woman, but the energy alone coming from her warranted intimidation. It was even oppressive to some extent.

"You're wanted downstairs, Heides." She paused. "… haven't thought of a costume yet, love? This was one of your favorite holidays, after all."

"Nergal. You're—" Heidi choked before she could continue. The power was painful to some extent.

"Oh, this? Well, since I'm almost complete and the baby wished to look like her Mama, I thought that it would be nice to… control myself in this state. You don't think that'll be a problem, hm?"

"N—no! I… I'm just surprised, 's all." Heidi let go of Lati and walked over to Nergal.

Nergal walked over to Heidi in turn. "This is not my original form, but bask in its glory~. Hehe."

Once the two were close, Nergal pulled Heidi into a smothering kiss. Heidi can feel Nergal's Dynamax Energy encircle her… and the Dynamagical Energy just waiting to infect her…

… but not now.

"I'd make you mine right this very second… but you need to be a good host to your guest. Consider this a tease for later."

Heidi felt a shiver go down her feathers. It's something that Nergal always found a way to be good at. Still, Heidi nodded and gave Nergal a little peck on the cheek before making it downstairs.

Heidi made her way down the stairs to greet whoever was in the Hall of Origin. She wasn't expecting any guests today, so it wasn't something that she scheduled immediately. Maybe it was Leifi or someone else from Kalos, or maybe Aesen or Helga…. However, it was clear that it was none of them. She wasn't even close.

"Ah! There you are!" Metea stood from the couch and waved at Heidi. "I was worried that you decided to go back to sleep."

"Hi Auntie Metea. It's good to see you today." Heidi smiled.

"'Auntie'!?" Metea started to laugh.

"I'm guessing that orientation's starting soon?"

"That's right." Metea nodded. "Although, did you get my message about your uniform?"

"Huh? Oh! Right."

Heidi transformed into a different style of her Low Powered form. "Is this okay? I took a few liberties, but I stayed to the general idea."

Metea smiled. "That's perfect. Thank you. Now, are you ready to go?"

"In a sec. Let me tell Nergal and the baby so they know what's going on. Gives time for Ghost to tell Jeanne, too."

"Okay. Take your time!" Metea nodded and smiled at the Latias. They weren't in a full rush at least.

Hall of Origin, Sinnoh, Elysium

Heidi and Metea ended up in Heidi's Hall of Origin. The Acting-Arceus let go of Metea's hand and immediately made it for the couch, falling and landing on it. "Thanks for taking me home, Metea. Do you wanna hang out for a while? I can introduce you to my family."

Metea shook her head. "I would love to, but I promised my baby brother to check on him and hang out after his mission is over."

"Oh, yeah! What's your brother's name? You never gave me that."

"His name is Syrtus. He's a B-rank."

"Syrtus. Gotcha. I'll remember that if I run into him there. Well, if you or him ever wanna visit when you have time, feel free to. I'd be happy to introduce you guys."

"Thank you, Heidi. Make sure you come back on time for Onboarding!"

"I will! Thank you!"

Metea teleported out of the area, leaving Heidi to relax on the couch back home. It was nice to finally unwind.

Nergal walked down the stairs and smiled at Heidi. "Seems that you had a good time."

"Yeah. I wasn't expecting to suddenly get a job interview today, though." Heidi snapped her fingers, relieving Jeanne of back-up duty.

"Job interview? What was it for?" Nergal sat next to Heidi.

"Auntie Arty had me join her Bounty Hunting Agency, so I was away this whole time doing interviews." Heidi moved to laying on Nergal's lap. "Interesting people and an interesting position."

"So, you're a bounty hunter now?"

"Agent, but yeah. I want to get stronger so I can better protect you and the family and also this world."

Nergal stroked Heidi's hair. "Well, that's one way to achieve that goal. I'm sure you'll do fine, just as long as you don't get in my way~"

"Or you don't get in mine~"

The two dragons laughed together. It was nice to have each other bac—

Riiinng! It seemed to be Ghost.

"Huh?" Heidi looked over as Ghost appeared in front of her. "Here. Let me read that." Heidi grabbed the phone and looked. It was a message from Zinnia that was just sent over.

…

"…? The heck. What do you mean that Lauren's missing?"

In the Director's office, Heidi sat across from the Director, reading and signing onboarding paperwork that was given to her. The Director was explaining the basics of the paperwork while allowing Heidi the time to read through the details and agreeing. After a while, they were done.

"You will be starting as a Rank E agent. You will be specializing in intelligence gathering as well as certain extermination missions. Courtesy of your unique situation, we will ensure to send someone to watch over your world while you're gone to make sure that it's safe for you. Judging by how time flows in your world, your orientation starts next Monday. Please come on time and be ready for a lot of learning. While you have a home to return to, we will still ensure to give you a dorm to stay in and you're free to utilize the services as you see fit as if you did live here."

"Thank you, Director, though is it okay if I can start a little later? With the situation with my Shadow Sister and Team Rainbow Rocket, I want to make sure things are handled at home first."

"Well, we can delay things for a little while, but there's a chance that you'll still need to report to us before you can wrap things up there. Do you have someone to help you investigate things?"

"I do, yes. I'll have to ask Jeanne and Rachel to do that while I'm away."

"Very well. Then, how about this? We will set your orientation for a month from now. Should you still have things to do, please inform Jeanne and Rachel and return here. Unless you're urgently needed, I'll let HQ know to put you in the low priority bracket for E-rank missions. Once things are completed, let me know and we will return you to standard priority. Is that alright with you?"

Heidi nodded and smiled. "Yes. Thank you, Director. I appreciate it."

"Perfect. Now, let's talk about getting you home. Come with me."

The Director and Heidi walked out of the office and through the halls. Eventually, they reached the center courtyard, a large, open space where many agents and others were commuting through. There were plants and symbols all over the place, as if this was one giant campus. It was astonishing.

Once the two reached one end, they stopped. The Director looked around. "Now, your Aunt is still on a mission, so I have someone else that can take you home."

"Okay. Oh, actually is it okay if I can take a sample of the grass? I want to record the location of this place so I can know how to easily come back here."

"You may."

Heidi walked over to some of the low-cut grass and picked off one of the blades. Ghost appeared next to her and started scanning it. After a minute, it finished processing.

New location added to the portal system.

"Thanks, Ghost—"

Heidi was suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice. "You know, you don't look like the type to touch too much grass, Heidi."

"Huh?" Heidi looked up. She stood up straight and backed away from the grass.

It was Metea. "What's gotten you so enamored with the flora, hm?" She chuckled at the little dragon.

"Oh! I wasn't just admiring the grass. I was just recording this place for my portal system. Sorry if that looked weird."

"Heh. It's alright. It wasn't all that strange." She smiled at Heidi and then at the Director. "Anyway, I'm here. Time for me to take Heidi home?"

The Director nodded. "That is correct. You also have the requirement to pick her back up should she be at risk of missing her orientation. Can you do that?"

"As long as I don't have a mission set up, sure."

"Good. Now, if you excuse me…" The Director nodded at Metea. She then looked at Heidi. "If you need anything important, please reach out to myself or Metea." The Director walked away.

Heidi watched as the Director left them alone. It seems that she had more to do. "So, that's the Director, huh?"

"Yep. This place wouldn't be the same without her and HQ, honestly. They're both integral to keep the ball rolling. Anyway, are you ready to return home? I'm sure your family miss you."

"Yeah. I'm sure that my daughter's probably asking all sorts of questions about how long I'll be gone and when am I coming home with Auntie Arty…" Heidi chuckled.

"Well, she'll be asking about Artemis for a little longer, though I'm sure that, when she's done her missions, Artemis will make sure to visit."

"Yeah. I'm sure so, too. Anyway, let's go."

The Director looked between Heidi and Diana. The two were beaten up, but Heidi was quite more beaten… and satisfied. If anything, it looked like Heidi enjoyed the fight that she had with Diana, doubly so after she gained her High Power in the midst of the battle. She'll have to look into that another day.

The Director healed both girls. "Thank you, Diana. You performed well. You are dismissed for now."

Diana nodded and looked back at Heidi. Heidi smugly looked at Diana. The tension between them was felt almost immediately. Should Heidi get this position, it was clear that this wasn't going to be the last spar between them.

"...Diana."

Diana quickly turned around to the Director. "Oh. Yes. I will provide my assessment to HQ when completed, then." Diana started walking away.

Heidi waved. "Tell Auntie I said 'hi' when you see her!"

"Tell her yourself." Diana walked away.

"Damn. Rude." Heidi blinked and turned to The Director. "Now, what is next?"

"Let us continue your assessments. Follow me." The Director started walking away.

Heidi quickly started to follow.

---

The ability assessment was uneventful. There, Heidi showed off her creation abilities, her invisibility, her stealth, her engineering, and the various forms that she takes. She tested each one to show off how she could use each of them to problem solve. It wasn't anything that she hadn't shown off before.

For the first verbal interview, Heidi was led into a room and was sat down. The Director left the room, leaving Heidi with her interviewer.

"...Miss Metea?"

"Hello." Metea smiled at Heidi. "Honestly, I was just as surprised as you are when HQ asked for me to interview you."

"Huh. Interesting." Heidi nodded. "Well, I hope that who I am won't color your review, then."

Metea shook her head. "It won't. Now, should we get started?"

"Mmmm."

"Very well." Metea summoned a pen and paper, as well as a pair of glasses that was placed on her face. "Now, from the notes of your previous assessments, I wanted to ask more about your world and your feelings with it."

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Your world seems to be one that houses a various amount of worlds. Is that correct?"

"That's right. It's not just those from my home world or Lauren's world, but we're home to a bunch of Fallers and other creatures that don't have a home to return to at the moment."

"And how do you manage them? You don't seem to have unlocked everything with your Arceus abilities yet, so I don't think you have omnipotence."

Heidi shook her head. "I'm still working on that, yeah. As for how I manage them? It's a combination between my friendships with many of them, an Unown network, and a few humans that I've befriended. Some of my friends have some level of omnipotence and keep me in the loop if something is of importance. Not only that, but many of them communicate to me through Ghost, who relays things to me."

"Ghost?"

Heidi nodded. She snapped her fingers, causing an Arc Phone to appear right next to her. The device placed itself in her palms as the driver of the phone came out: a shiny "!" Unown. Ghost let out a cry.

"Ghost here is my connection to the Unown network. We both are technically detached from the network, but Ghost can communicate with the other Unown and coordinate with them for me. It also drives my phone, just like a Rotom would." Heidi giggled.

"I see. Interesting. Did you develop that idea yourself?"

"I did, yes."

Ghost returned itself to the phone. Once controlling the phone again, Ghost disappeared.

Heidi leaned forward a little. "Ghost is one of my best ways to gather intel, but I also share memories with Melony, who's my Giratina sister and retainer. She has some omnipotence, so I can proxy it to some extent in my own world."

"So, you use friendships and technology to gain intelligence."

"That's right." Heidi nodded. "It's something that I've done for a long time ever since I came to this world and regained my memories. It's just that, as Acting-Arceus, something like that is more important than ever."

Metea nodded and smiled. "I get it. Well, if you do start working here, I think something like that could be of great use to us. Bounty hunting isn't just about hunting down targets and defeating them. Intelligence gathering and logistics is some of our bread and butter, and doing that through technology could prove useful."

Heidi was led into a set of dorm halls and eventually placed inside a dorm after a long tour around the campus. While she wasn't getting tired, seeing the inside of the dorm made her want to relax. Inside was a bed, couch and desk, with plenty of space for other things.

"This is one of the guest dorms. Feel free to take some time to relax here while we prepare for your interview, or look around some more. Either HQ or I will come to get you when it's time to begin."

"Thank you. And you said 'no weapons', right?" Heidi took out her portal gun and placed it on the desk.

"Your portal gun is fine for travel, but weapons like your move gun is forbidden outside of designated areas."

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."

The Director nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Heidi took a moment to make sure that the Arceus was gone. Then, she yawned and changed forms to her Older Form before walking over and sitting on the guest bed. Ghost appeared in front of her, holding its phone screen out with a notification. Heidi looked up at the notification. It was a message from Nergal, asking if Heidi's okay.

[Tell Nergal that I'm gonna be a little while.]

Ghost tilted a little.

"Permission request to inform Nergal of your current pending status."

[Permission granted, and permission granted to everyone in the family group, but make sure to proactively inform Jeanne and Melly.]

"Acknowledged."

Ghost disappeared to perform Heidi's tasks.

As the dragon closed her eyes and transformed back to her true form, she suddenly felt light brushing on her feathers. She smiled, adjusting herself to be closer to the entity that was petting her. Then, she heard the sound of the individual.

"Do you really plan to apply without Lacey, Heidi?"

[I plan to tell them that I don't have Lacey with me, but if our Auntie really thinks that I'd be good to be here, then maybe she's onto something.]

"Mmm." The True Arceus scratched a little in Heidi's feathers. She could hear Heidi purring for an instinctual reaction. "...Did you get a glimpse of that one Arceus that looked at you back?"

[Hm? Oh, that one? Yeah. I know that foreboding feeling from anywhere. That was--]

"—Dinah, for sure." Arceus finished Heidi's sentence. "Her name is Ashe. She's one of the higher-ranking agents here, though she likes to do things on her own, just like Dinah does. Considering how this Agency involves themselves in different universes, I'm not surprised that Dinah would want to involve herself here in this space."

[Guess that means that she's probably bound to make herself known eventually. Wouldn't be surprised if she--]

Knock knock knock!

Heidi quickly transformed into her Arceus form. The True Arceus disappeared entirely. Was it already time for the interview, or was that Ashe already introducing herself? Either way, that was fairly quick all things considered. "Coming," she shouted as she briskly walked towards the door, slowly opening it.

A woman that Heidi hadn't recognized was in front of her. She was a woman of fairly tall and commanding stature. If anything, the Arceus on the other side of the door felt imposing and intimidating, as if it was a lesson for Heidi not to open the door in the first place.

"You must be Artemis' niece."

"I… I am, yeah." Heidi shifted a little. "And you are…?"

"Metea. I'm a friend of your aunt's~"

"Hello Metea." Heidi turned around to check to the True Arceus once again. She was nowhere to be found. Heidi turned back to the Arceus. "Would you like to come in? Not sure when The Director or HQ will want to start my interview."

Heidi opened the door some more and backed away from it, allowing Metea to enter the guest room. The two of them moved over to the bed, where they sat on opposite sides of it. Neither of them paid much attention to the décor, likely due to the fact that both of them were familiar with it. Heidi was instead busy trying to get a feeling for this stranger. She could determine that she wasn't hostile and that some of the intimidating aura was downplayed for now, but Heidi wasn't sure where this was going to go.

Metea smiled softly. "Your aunt told me a lot about you… about your accomplishments and what you've went through. She never mentioned just how young you are to go through so much."

Heidi sighed. "Well, when duty calls, it doesn't care if you're 2,000 years old or 200,000. All it asks is for you to answer it, and for you to have the strength to overcome its obstacle."

"That's very mature of you."

"Thank you." Heidi looked up to the skies. "So, how close are you to Auntie Arty? I don't remember her talking much to me about her duties, though I wasn't as important as others at the time."

"Well, if you must know… your aunt and I are rivals." She crossed her arms. "Joined the Agency around the same time. My baby brother and I wanted to find purpose since neither of us were capable of creating a world, and Arty… well, she has her own reasons." Metea chuckled. "Either way, we became friends and rivals, made it up the ranks together, even dated for a time."

"You two dated? I didn't know about that, either."

"Yeah, we did. Though, while it lasted for a while, we broke it off when we reached S-rank. Our relationship was impacting our performance, so we went back to being friends and rivals ever since."

"That makes sense." Heidi nodded. "I… divorced my then-husband for similar reasons. He's a great dragon, but we thought that it would be better for both of us and our shared goals to break things off to focus on our children and our roles in the world. We're still friends, though."

"Understandable. Who is this creature? Was it a Latios?"

Heidi shook her head. "He's the Rayquaza of my current home. He and our adoptive daughter, Zinnia, took me in after a Wormhole transported me there."

"Aww. Interdimensional love. How touching."

"Yeah." Heidi looked down to the floor, though her smile disappeared. "I'm… with someone else now and I love her more than anything in the world but sometimes I think of him and what would have been had this never happened."

Metea rubbed Heidi's shoulder. "I understand. You loved him and, from the sounds of things, loved the life that you built while you were with him. There's nothing wrong with missing that, even if you've long moved on."

"Thank you, Metea. I… appreciate i-- huh?"

Heidi initially looked up to look at Metea for the sincere words; however, something else caught her eyes. On the other side of the the room, someone was standing at the open entrance of the room. She seemed short and aloof, with her phone out and seemingly staring back at the two women. Stranger still, Heidi could sense something extremely familiar about this individual, as if she they had met already before… though, she couldn't put her finger on what exactly yet. Strange.

Metea finally turned around to look at the woman at the door. "Oh! HQ! It's good to see ya."

"That's HQ?" Heidi blinked several times in quick succession. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't this.