Authors Note: The female character introduced is OC, and you should not know her. She will be better introduced in Ch. 3. This is my first story, so excuse any mistakes in uploading the chapters or grammar. Thank you for reading.

Chapter One

Viewpoint of a Traveler

Edward Elric

I was falling. Tumbling head over heels, no clue whatsoever where up was. Heck, I didn't even know if there was an up in this strange new place! When I dared to open my eyes darkness met me. No sight or sound, nor feeling. It was a world of black, of nothing.

All at once, the surroundings turned a light gray\black color. I could see stars above me, feel the wind whistling by me, and see a small form lying next to me on the ground. Time to look at the situation: I'm in an unfamiliar land, no clue where it is, and a stranger is next to me. Then again, I hadn't looked at him yet. For all I knew it was the Easter bunny, if an ugly rabbit that resembeled a human.

Approaching him,I turned him (for he was a boy) onto his back and saw an 11, 12 year old with light brown hair. I saw a face I hadn't seen in years. "Al…" I whispered stunned. I had been with him for three years never seeing his face, only armor with his voice. To see him now, looking exactly how he had before the incident was just… mind numbing.

Giddiness set in. I had actually succeeded! Al was back in his body! But I still had no idea where we were, and I absolutely refused to let any harm come to my brother! In other words, find someplace safe, figure out just what the heck I'm doing here, and make sure Al is ok. I dragged his body over to a small tree that I was near, then proceeded to start slapping my unconscious brother in an attempt to pull him into the land of the living. For a while it seemed as though my attempts were in vain and he would sleep for infinity. I stopped after his face had become a bright pink and I laid my head against the bark and waited. I wasn't waiting for something, just... anything that required me moving. Or thinking. But for now, I was content to just sit there and wait.

After about five minutes Al finally opened his eyes. I first pinched myself to make sure I was not dreaming, and as the resulting pain caused my arm to go numb (pinching yourself with a metal arm isn't a very good idea), I ran over to greet my brother. Al stood up before me, a full 4inches taller than me, and he smiled as he said "Hello Brother." I frantically searched my mind for the correct words to say back to him, but I did not find anything of use, so I just repeated what he had said to me. "Hello broth…" Shouts filled the air, interrupting me. I spun around to see a strange girl with a huge grin on her face running out of a black building a stone's throw away. She looked about nine years old with long blond hair streaming behind her and bright, gleeful blue eyes. She was laughing like she'd just pulled a major prank and was getting away with it.

Suddenly, about fifteen men in strange, medieval-like armor came rushing out after her, yelling. Strangely, their words sounded familiar but with an almost indiscernible accent. As I listened, the words began to become clearer. Perhaps just by listening to the people talk my brain was adjusting itself to be able to understand them. Maybe I had just discovered an ancient form of telepathy! But now wasn't the time to think about the language. After all, I could figure it out later. Instead I should be worried about the fight about to break out.

The lead man threw out a punch, rather comical considering he was, what, twenty feet away from his target? 'What the… what kind of alchemy was that? That was FIRE flying out of his hand, with no alchemic array in sight. I then got the second surprise of the night when the girl skillfully jumped out of the way without missing a beat, racing into the abundant trees surrounding us. More shouts appeared, and it seemed they finally noticed me gaping at them. He shouted something sounding like "The weird golden headed girl-boy saw us losing to a girl. Kill him!" but I could've been wrong. He then took up that odd fire stance again and punched a fireball towards me.

As I was staring at these strange beings and stranger fire, I heard a scream coming from Al. I turned around to see Al being tackled by two of these armor-clad soldiers. As I was about to pursue my brother's captors, the two men behind me forced me into a pair of handcuffs. I attempted to kick the legs out from under my captors, but as I lunged for them a small blast of fire came toward my face. I used my auto-mail arm to block this attack and managed to get away, but as I continued to doge the blasts, I fell and hit my face on a rock. This ungraceful action was all the distractions they needed to grab me and bring me inside the black tower. I was then thrown, quite unkindly, into a large jail cell.

Obviously, I was not happy about being thrown into a cell in the middle of who knows where. The only good thing was that I could still see Al. The bad thing: apparently, Al was unconscious. Now, it was great he had his body back, but now was not the time to go all sleeping on me. I WAS FREAKING OUT HERE! I needed some actual help!

Okay, first things first; analyze the situation. I can barely understand what everyone else is saying (they have such an odd accent!) and I am in a very strange land. Like Roy, the guards could use strange flame alchemy, but it was unlike any alchemy I had seen before, and I've seen a lot of alchemy. My hands were movable enough for alchemy, and my cell was near the outside, leading to an easy escape route. Okay, that's something good. It's best to examine the surroundings without the threat of imminent death. Unfortunately, Al was in a cell to the right of me, separated by a thick metal wall and window.

I noticed an old man in the cell next to me. Loopy one by the looks of it. He was staring off into space, a dopy half-grin on his face. If this wasn't enough, he was clapping his hands as if swatting a bug. Or clapping to music only he could hear. Actually, it was rather creepy. But at least he wasn't acting as crazy with the guards gone. In fact, he seems to be analyzing us very uncrazy-like… Hold On! Why would a crazy guy pretend to be crazy? Well, that didn't make sense. Unless he was a spy! Ehhh… no, wait that was stupid. Why would a spy be in jail? Unless he was a spy for the other side! Wait, what is the other side? Okay, I'm confusing myself.

To prevent a headache, I decided to make little stone-airplanes and fly them. Because they were stone, they didn't fly very well. I settled for chucking them at the back of the guards head. Oops. I didn't mean to knock him out, how was I supposed to know he wouldn't dodge? For goodness sakes, that armor should be able to protect him! Then the old guy (the secret spy!) started laughing. Not a crazy, maniacal one (like I usually hear from old guys such as him), but a normal "that was funny" laugh.

"You're an odd one, aren't you," said the old man.

My 'intelligent' response was, "huh?"

"You are the first person that I have ever seen who can make those small stone 'Gliders'. You are also the first person that I have met who was brave enough to knock out a guard while in a cell, and thereby under the guards complete control. You are either very stupid, mentally unstable, or you have some type of plan."

"The closest thing that I have to a plan is an objective, and that is to find out where the hell I am"

Do not use such vulgar language young one. I'll have you know that we are currently residing in the Fire Nations High-Security jail, and they do not treat people such as you with much kindness. Even if you hadn't injured a guard with a stone airplane, speaking of that stone airplane, how did you make it? Are you from the Earth Kingdom?"

"What's the Earth Kingdom? Furthermore, why are the places named after elements? I mean, Fire, Earth, what's next; Rainbows?"

"To the first question, the Earth kingdom is a continent East of here where the Earth-benders live. To the second, the people who named the places were not very imaginative. They just named the areas after their style of bending. To the third, well, there is no Rainbow kingdom to my knowledge, but I would really like to go there. It sounds like a very nice place. The only other kingdoms are the Water tribes and the ex-Air benders."

"Ex?"

"Kid if you don't know about how the Air-benders were wiped out at the beginning of the war, you've been hiding under a rock for the past 100 years."

"Wait, there's a war going on? Between who?"

The man looked at me with an annoyed, but mostly confused expression. "Young one, are you sure you have lived here? No matter where you go, you can see signs of the Fire nation conquest. Unless there is a secret place separated from the Elemental Nations, there is absolutely no way you can remain ignorant of the war."

"That's the problem! I just got here, and suddenly some crazy people in masks are attacking us with something physically impossible! Alchemy without circles cannot exist (except in my case), and only fire alchemy can move fire to your will." Needless to say, I was getting rather frustrated. I was, however, learning some valuable information to be analyzed later.

"All fire bending can bend the fire, and it has nothing to do with circles. So long as you know the forms and are born of the Fire nation you can, as you called it, move fire to your will."

"But there must be a scientific explanation! Magic like this crazy bending doesn't exist, everything has to be explainable!"

"There is no known scientific explanation. Sadly, the quest for knowledge has recently dried out. Nobody cares how it happens, just that it does. But that isn't your problem right now. You are currently in the highest-security jail, and you have assaulted a guard. That by itself is reason for high penalties. In fact, just for trespassing on Fire Nation high-security area, you will most likely be executed. Certainly not released."

"Well, it doesn't really matter what they decide, 'cause I'm gonna get out really soon."

"And how do you plan to do that, youngster"

"Simple: Alchemy"

"You've mentioned that before. What is ala-chem-enny?"

I grinned my evil grin. "Watch this." Clapping my hands, I reached for the wall separating me from my (currently) unconscious brother, and worked my magic.