Ed scowled after the fiery girl; he was not a shrimp, dammit! Nobody's called him shrimp in 2 years!

How he hated this 'mission'.

Who knew how long he would be stuck with them?

I can't believe Ling threatened me...

At least he was able to call someone else pipsqueak for a change. Not that the fact really helped.

Sokka called a meeting – the fifth one this week – in which he was sure was going to go downhill – where he explained the whole situation to Aang the avatar.

How the boy survived the lightning he had no idea, not sure he wanted to know either.

"This is Edward, he's the new recruit."

Ed nodded in his direction, then continued with his food.

"The invasion will continue as planned. Plus, we have a secret..." Sokka paused, looking around dramatically. "You."

"Me?" Aang repeated, a bewildered expression on his face.

Ed watched them, positive that Sokka shouldn't have been so blunt.

But who am I to talk?

He mused with a small smirk.

"Yup. The whole world thinks you're dead." Sokka said cheerfully, spreading his arms out wide.

"The whole world thinks i'm...dead?" Aang looked horrified at the news – contrary to Sokka.

Ed secretly agreed he would be horrified too if the whole world thought him dead, though it seemed he was the only one thinking that.

"How is that possible?!"

"So the Firenation won't be expecting you on the day of black sun, isn't this great?" Sokka continued, oblivious to his friend's distress.

"No! It's not great!"

Ed was starting to think Sokka might have some sort of hearing problem.

"I'm supposed to save the world! But how can I do that if the whole world thinks i'm dead?!"

"Firenation ship!" someone called, distracting everyone from the matter at hand.

"I'll handle this. The avatar is back-"

Ed put down his food, watching Aang suddenly double forward in pain.

The boy was still healing, what was he thinking?

"Aang, stop. You're still hurt. Dad and Bato will handle it."

Ed shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips as he saw Aang scowl.

They were forced under a blanket, while Ed stood a little farther off, leaning on a pipe.

Three men boarded their ship.

"What are you doing? All western fleets are supposed to report to Ba Sing Se!" the leader barked, looking pretty intimidating.

He seemed to be used to that.

"We're from the...eastern fleet." Hakkoda quickly said, adding a sheepish smile.

While Ed admired his confidence and quick thinking in dealing with the enemy, he couldn't help roll his eyes at the smile.

The leader seemed to buy it. "Ah...Eastern fleet. That's under General Chan's division. He could've told us, I mean, how hard is it to send a hawk our way?"

"Next time, we'll send two hawks to make sure you get the message."

"Hmph."

Ed narrowed his eyes at the leader.

"Alright."

He caught sight of the slight halt the leader made as one of his guards leaned to tell him something. Even if he didn't hear it, Toph's cry pretty much confirmed his suspicions.

"They're going to sink the ship!"

He clapped, transmuting the metal bridge; bending it into a sphere to trap the General and his goons. It sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Ed leaned forward, looking into the deep abyss. "Good riddance."

His head snapped up to look at the other ship.

A devilish smirk formed on his face as he clapped; exploding the enemy ship.

He watched it sink, an insane grin on his face.

A chorus of awed gasps slapped him out of his daze, and he blinked.

What was that?

Maybe using Kimblee's exploding alchemy was too much.

He should stop.

"Why'd you do that?"

"They were going to sink the ship." Toph huffed, climbing out of the blanket. "How'd you do that? I thought i was the only one who knew metal bending."

"But that was simple, everyone knows you just have to channel your energy to-"

"What?"

"Nothing." Ed said gruffly.

Wouldn't be good to let possible enemies know alchemy, would it?

"That was good, Ed. I guess Emperor Ling does know what he's doing."

"Looks like another secret weapon!" Sokka exclaimed excitedly.

Ed frowned at the choice of words.

"Don't like being a secret?" Aang asked as he noticed Ed's expression, a somber look on his face.

"Don't like being a weapon." Ed corrected, looking behind him where the ship had disappeared.

He had been one for far too long.