Edward awoke to the sound of rocks smashing against each other. He bolted up and looked around for the ridiculously loud noise. He eventually found Aang and Toph throwing rocks at one another. Oh... It's just that, he thought, breathing a slight sigh of relief that he wasn't falling off another cliff. Wait, his expression turned to confusion, Since when did that become a normal thing?

A fine layer of dirt had settled over Toph's hair and clothes by the time she finally noticed Edward hovering over to the side. She scowled, flinging a last boulder over her shoulder and sending it spinning towards Aang, before shouting "took you enough time to wake up, Fullmetal! What the hell possessed you to jump off a cliff? You idiot!"

"I fell!" He called over and started walking towards her. His first step felt a little crooked and he paused to check his automail. It seemed to have been a little dented in the fall. "Fuck," He said under his breath, "How am I going to get that fixed...?" He put his pant leg back down and continued walking over to the grimy child. "I just punched the ground and the whole freaking thing imploded on itself!"

Toph's glare slipped a little, and almost despite herself, her attention sharpened. "Really now? Tell me exactly what happened."

"Well I punched it with my automail hand so I think I just hit it too hard and it was too weak..." Edward studied her sudden interest, "Why? Do you think it's something else?"

"What, you mean the thing we've been training you in for the past few days? No, of course not. That would just be ridiculous." Toph snorted. "Seriously, you can't answer that question on your own?"

"But I've had such trouble with it when I was doing it correctly!" Edward crossed his arms in annoyance, "Why would I possibly just have a burst of energy when I was just sitting on some cliff? That never happens with alchemy, you would need to be in a specific transmutation circle or around some special artifact... It doesn't just happen randomly! That's illogical!"

"Fullmetal, you seriously need to get over this logical fetish you have." Toph sounded slightly exasperated. "It's really holding you back. The key to bending isn't some fancy circle you draw. The key" -she jabbed one finger to his chest, right over his heart- "is here. What were you thinking about when you punched the cliff?"

"Well," Edward started looking back on last night, "I was thinking about Alchemy. And uh... my family."

"Uh huh," Toph said encouragingly. "Keep going. How did that make you feel?"

"Pissed off and lonely."

"Why? Because you're basically useless here without your Alchemy?" she pressed mercilessly.

Edward gritted his teeth and frowned, "I'm not useless." His hands clenched into fists.

"Right, right," Toph replied sarcastically. "You've just been a huge help with everything. You refuse to learn, which makes being out here nothing more than a big waste of time. You spend every minute you can moaning about how everything is so much easier with Alchemy, and the rest of the time you focus so much on how things don't make sense that you can't bring yourself to see beyond that! If it wasn't for you, we'd still be in Republic City where we should be, helping the people who actually need it!

Edward exposed his clenched teeth and practically snarled at her. "Would you stop bashing me?!" he shouted and raised his fist, hurling it at her. A huge hunk of rock came up out of the ground and followed the motion of Edward's fist flying towards Toph. It caught his attention and he averted his gaze away from where his punch was about to land and watched the rock. He only snapped back to attention when his automail arm made contact with something. He quickly looked towards Toph to see how hard he had hit her only to see a slab of stone on the ground and crumbs of rock in his joints.

In the last moment before he'd made contact, Toph had managed to throw a shield up between them. As she poked at the shattered pile of rocks with one foot, Toph's triumphant smile became apparent. "And that, Fullmetal, is what matters in Earthbending."

Edward stared at the rubble speechless, his mouth agape. "I.. I...I...," He stuttered.

"Come on." Toph cocked an eyebrow at him. "How much do you want to bet that you can't do it again?"

Edward stared at his hands then looked at the hunk of rock laying next to Toph. His expression snapped into determination and he took the stance Toph showed him in their first lesson, he simultaneously pushed out one palm, fingers curled, away from his chest and brought the other close to his side. The rock exploded forward with a dazzling display of debris and dust. Edward coughed a bit, still holding his stance and when the dust cleared from the air, he saw that the piece of Earth had moved quite a distance away from the two. The blonde's golden eyes widened and his lips curled into a massive smile. He looked back towards Toph, "Did you see that?!" He shouted in excitement.

"My God, you people!" Toph waved a hand in front of her blank eyes. "Does no one know the meaning of blind? What you meant to say was: Whoa, did you feel that?! And the answer to that is yes. You finally got the hang of it Fullmetal."

"Right..." Edward said sheepishly, his face flushing slightly. She doesn't act blind at all... "Wow! I can't believe I actually did it! I- wow!"

"Do you feel anything?" Toph asked. "With your alchemy, I mean. Any magical switches been flipped?"

Edward felt his spine tingle with energy. He looked to his open palms and took a deep breath in, letting his eyes close. He clasped his hands together and flared his nostrils, exhaling heavily and shoving his hands to the ground. His eyes bolted open and flashed with intensity. As his hands hit the ground, pillars of stone shot up all around the hunched over teen. Behind Toph, a metal statue of a suit of armor stood from the ground, bolts of alchemical energy flaring around it.

As the ground shook from the alien force crashing through it, Toph stumbled forward to her knees, pressing her palms flat against the earth.

"Holy..." she whispered, overwhelmed by the immense amount of sheer power she could feel humming through the stone.

Edward's heart raced. He looked up from his hands to the forest of rock.

"You..." Toph breathed, climbing back to her feet. "You did this? This is alchemy?"

"The metal is," The blonde said a little breathless.

"The metal?" Toph asked, turning to face the armor. She ran light fingers over every crevice, feeling the soft plume at the crown of the head and the jagged rivets where pieces overlapped. "Why a suit of armor?"

Edward slowly got to his feet and walked over to the copy of his younger brother. "Well," he started, "This is what my younger brother... wears." He put his automail hand to the metal.

Toph raised an eyebrow. "He wears a suit of armor everywhere? Why?"

"Uhh- Let's just say it's related to my prosthetics."

Toph opened her mouth to question further when she heard Katara's footsteps.

"What happened here?" the waterbender asked and made her way through the stalagmites.

"Fullmetal here finally learned earthbending!" Toph said, a cocky grin lighting up her face. "I told you I'm a great teacher."

Edward frowned at her. "I've also figured out how to perform alchemy in this world."

Katara gasped and smiled, "Wow! Can I see?" She intertwined her fingers together.

"Uh, sure." Edward clapped his hands together and faced his palms towards all of the protruding rock behind him. Alchemical energy sparked around the mass of earth and the coulombs began to shrink into the ground until the earthy floor was as Edward had remembered it before.

Zuko stepped from the cloud of settling dust as the last pillar disappeared, surveying the scene approvingly.

"So, this is alchemy." He smirked. "I've gotta say, it's a lot more impressive than the last time."

"Shut your damn face!" Edward growled.

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "You should be talkin' a lot nicer to me than that, Shortstack. Seeing as I was the one who almost drowned to save your sorry ass."

"Yeah, yeah, you almost drowned." Edward blew a stray strand of hair out of his face. He did appreciate that Zuko had saved his life, but there was no way in hell he'd let Zuko know that. "I can't wait to get out of here! You firebenders are so rude! Hey, where's Aang by the way?"

"He had to fly back to Republic City on urgent business," Katara told him.

"Wait, on Appa?" Toph asked incredulously. "Is he planning on leaving us stranded here?"

"No he took his glider. It's a long way but he thinks he can make it by following the right air currents."

"Oh," Toph said, not sure whether to be relieved that there was transportation available or disappointed that Appa was still there and they would be flying yet again.

Katara smiled sweetly at the two for a moment before gasping ever so slightly and frantically looking around her. She took a few steps in all directions and bit her lip. "Uhm... Have you guys seen Momo? I just had him here with me a moment ago."

"Aang didn't take Momo with him?" Toph asked, confused. "I thought he would have."

"Who- or... what is 'Momo'?" Edward questioned, "I think I read somewhere that 'Momo' is the word for 'peach' in Xing..."

"Momo is Aang's pet lemur," Katara informed him while walking over to a nearby berry bush. "Where is... Oh nevermind. Toph, Can you feel him anywhere?"

Toph tilted her head for a moment before giving it a quick shake. "He must be flying off somewhere."

"Flying?!" Edward's mouth shot open. "You're trying to tell me that a lemur is flying! What?!"

"We'll explain later, Ed," Katara hurried off and signaled for Toph to follow.

"Seriously, you're still surprised by this stuff?" Zuko pointed out once the two women had disappeared, rolling his eyes. "You'd think you'd have started to take it in stride by now." He pushed himself away from the canyon wall and trailed after them, shouting back to Edward, "well, come on! Katara'll be insufferable if we don't help out!"

"Uh, I'll stay here for a bit I think," Edward called out. He stared at the ground and picked up a nearby stick.

Zuko shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you!" A moment later he had vanished behind a bend in the rock.

Edward started sketching runes into the ground. "This is gonna take a big transmutation circle..." he thought to himself.

"I can't believe we just spend two goddamn hours coaxing that stupid lemur down a tree," Zuko groused, rubbing at a new scratch on his arm. "Why the hell couldn't we have left him to the cat owls, huh?"

"Would you like to deal with the wrath of the Avatar after we tell him that you left his pet lemur to cat owls?" Katara sneered.

"Better than being mauled by angry cat owls!" Zuko exclaimed. "I'm gonna be pulling feathers out of my hair for weeks! Weeks, woman! Do you-" he cut off abruptly as they rounded the corner of the canyon. "What the hell?" he gasped instead, jaw dropping.

Edward was scratching in the final details of his masterpiece. The circle was intricately covered in runes, patterns, and phrases. He wiped his brow and walked back a few steps to see his transmutation circle. He noticed the others and smiled at them, "Did you find your... thing?"

Zuko nodded dumbly. "Uhh, what's all this?" he finally got out, still trying to take in the circle that was at least seven feet in diameter.

"Uh, well," Edward started. "This is alchemy. Most alchemists need a transmutation circle to do any alchemy at all. I have this special ability to just clap my hands and do it because I gave enough to learn that sort of skill. But for extreme alchemy like this, even I need a transmutation circle."

"And what sort of alchemy is this, exactly?" Toph queried.

"Something technically illegal in my country, I don't think you'll rat me out though. I'm going to have to perform human transmutation on myself in order to cross the gate to get back."

"Uhh, come again?"

Edward sighed and pointed at the circle with his stick, "This will amplify my alchemic abilities so that I can perform huge alchemical things!"

"Ooohhhh..." All three members of his audience nodded in understanding.

"So does this mean you're going to try to go back?" Toph asked, voicing what was on everyone's minds.

"Yes," Edward said bluntly. "I need to try and get back to my friends and family and everybody who is counting on me back home."

"But what about your Earthbending training?" Toph burst out. "Are you sure that you'll be able to do this much alchemy when you only just got the hang of it?"

"I'm a fast learner," Edward looked into her faded eyes.

"So," Katara paused trying to find the right words, "this is goodbye?"

"Yeah."

"Well that was quick." Zuko looked almost disgruntled. "How are you gonna pay me back for saving your stupid ass from drowning?"

Katara hit Zuko on the back of his head, "You are so rude!" She frowned at him.

Edward cracked a smile and threw his stick a few feet away from the circle. "I figured your ego would be too big to think that you'd need saving one day!"

"Shut up, Shortstack." But there was a hint of a smile touching Zuko's lips as he offered his hand to Edward. "Well, I guess this is it then."

The blond took his hand and gave it a firm shake. He beamed, "I'm glad you finally warmed up to me."

"Yeah, don't flatter yourself."

"But I'm such a wonderful person!" Edward laughed.

While his eyes were closed, Katara lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He blushed slightly and glanced at the mess of hair that was now invading his face. "Goodbye, Edward!"

"Uh, Goodbye, Katara," Edward didn't really know what to say. He hadn't gotten to know her very well, she was just kind of there while he was training. She released him and smiled cheerfully at him; he smiled back.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, it's all very touchy feely and all that crap." Katara was shoved rudely aside as Toph stepped up to Edward and punched him affectionately in the arm.

He recoiled slightly and rubbed his bicep, "Bye, Toph."

She raised an eyebrow. "'Bye Toph. Bye Toph?' That's all you have to say to me?"

Edward was silent for a moment before sarcastically smiling, "Yeah, pretty much."

She punched him again. "You ungrateful little brat. I take back any praise I gave you as my pupil."

"That's a whopping total of zero!" He sighed, "I'm glad to have met you all, although your world is freaky and I don't think I ever want to come back."

"Alright, this is heartwarming and all," Zuko cut in. "But don't you have your own world to get back to?"

"I'll bet my little brother is worried sick about me, who knows what's going through his mind?" Edward turned towards the Transmutation circle and placed his hands on the ground, his fingertips touching the very outer ring. He took a few deep breaths and the lines drawn into the ground began to glow gold.

"Oh, wow! It's so beautiful! Toph, are you seeing this?!" Katara gasped in amazement.

"Guys, blind! What aren't you getting about this?! Do I have to spell it out for you?! It's not that foreign of a concept!" Toph shouted irately.

Edward blew some air through his nose as sort of an almost-laugh. He stood up and stepped into the circle, closing his eyes and holding out his hands, bolts of golden alchemical energy shot up from the ground. Everyone watched the sight in amazement; it was much flashier than when Aang went into the avatar state.

Soon the gold flashed into purple and black, everything around them seemed to get darker. Clouds started appearing above the group, the whole world around them seemed to be more gloomy. Edward opened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows, his face was filled with determination and concentration. Tentacle like arms reached up and started grabbing at Edward's legs .

"Edward, no!" Katara shouted out, reaching her arm out. Zuko held her back.

Edward looked towards them and smiled one more time. His body started flaking away into the grasp of the little black hands tearing away his very being. One more blinding flash escaped from the center of the circle where Edward was standing.

When the light died down, the alchemists body was gone.