Hi. sorry for the delay. Here it is.

Disclaimer: never owned anything in here.

Ed was sure that it was nearing winter, since the air had turned crisper and the leaves had started to fall.

The expectations from these magical creatures still leaned heavily on him but Ed carried it.

Carried it upon his shoulders until the Thestral's talked inside his head. There was a list Ed had, it was labeled 'freakiest things in this world' the Thestral's now were at the top of it.

They criticized everything he did and drilled all kinds of knowledge inside his head. Which was not a problem since Ed loved the power of knowledge, but at his own pace. The Thestral's practically force fed him knowledge by the second.

Ed watched the leaves fall from the trees, a chill settling into the earth. His fingers itched to take his watch out but he restrained himself and made sure to stick onto the trail that the Thestral's told him to follow.

It had been practically months he had spent in this gone damn forest and all they sent him off was with a "follow the path that will lead you to your destiny."

Damn Thestral's.

Ed had landed himself on the most insane planet on earth.

Ed ran a hand through his bangs, roughly sighing in agitation as he strolled upon the trail. All of the creatures that he had met took a hand in his training but the Thestral's were by far the harshest.

Ed shuddered at the memories and pushed them far into the back of his mind.

Looking to the sky, Ed saw that it was nearing dawn and the tree's shadows drew menacing images of stalking predators in the night. The thought that Reality might just pop out of nowhere did not relax Ed. It only made his agitation grow.

Condensation escaped from his mouth, showing how much colder it was growing by the minute. The ports of his arm and legs started to ache and Ed decided to speed his pace up.

Ed's red coat willowed around his form as the wind started to intensify, almost as if a huge snowstorm was approaching.

Then with its large size and dark form, a Thestral was standing in front of him. This one Ed did not recognize. It lowered its head to him and swayed its large head towards its back. Ed wondered if this one did not have the power to speak to him as the others had.

The Thestral repeated the gesture and Ed slightly hesitated as he straddled the large creature of death.

The Thestral instantly spread its leather wings and leapt into the sky. Ed clutched on tightly as the wind whipped at his hair and rushed past his stinging ears.

The sudden thought of falling just made Ed clutch on tighter. Then his logical mind kicked in, why in the hell did he get onto a random Thestral that he did not know?

Maybe staying in that forest degraded my brain cells or something.

Ed would have laughed if the wind was not blowing into his face at the speed of sixty plus miles per hour.

The Thestral gave a large whine as it roughly landed and Ed felt his insides rattle from the force of it.

His vision wavered a bit but as soon as it cleared Ed saw the other Thestral's, along with the teenagers who liked like they were about to do something stupid.

The five teens were whispering to each other, not daring to make a loud noise. Ed nearly gave a yelp as the Thestral he rode bucked. Ed with frustration got down, whispering, "I got it, I'm getting off."

The Thestral then proceeded to prod him in the back with its snout, and Ed gave a huff, "I'm going, ok?"

Ed made sure to stay a couple feet away from the conspiring teenagers, sticking to the shadows of the buildings, and thinking of why in the hell was he trailing a bunch of children almost in the dead of night?

Ed observed as the raven head of the group, with large glasses, lead them near a phone booth. They all gathered around him and Ed hid behind the corner, struggling to hear what they were saying.

Ed watched as the girl with brunette hair conversed with the raven head.

"Harry, are you sure it wasn't Voldemort sending you…"

The raven head, Harry, as the brunette called him, replied with intensity, "Yes. Hermione, I saw it. I was there. It was so real. It was like with Ron's father. We have to save Sirius."

The group was silent afterwards and Ed waited, holding his breath in anticipation.

The red head then suddenly spoke out, incredulously, "Well, what are we doing standing around here for?"

It seemed to motivate the others into movement, all of them piling into the phone booth. Ed felt it in his gut, telling him that if he wasn't in that phone booth, like right now, he wasn't going to see them again.

Determination seared in Ed's golden eyes, and he sprinted towards the booth. A second later the door was slammed shut and Ed felt four pairs of eyes on him. The other pair was too busy punching numbers into the phone.

Harry kept his eyes on Ed as he elbowed the red head in the gut. "Ron." Harry hissed.

Ron glared at Harry, punching in one last number before saying with intensity, "what's your bloody problem? I'm getting there us there as fast as…"

Ron trailed off as he realized with a start that there was one too many people in the booth. Disbelieving eyes landed on Ed, "Merlin's beard! Who's he?"

Hermione slapped Ron on the back of his head, hissing, "The more important question is, how did he get in here?"

Ron yelped, and muttered as he rubbed the back of his head, "how should I know?"

Then the defined boy, with short dark hair, gasped and clutched onto Ron's arm. Surprise and irritation spread across the red-head's face. "Neville, what is—"There was a pull at everybody's gut.

Ed held onto the handle of the door as the booth started to move with great speed. Everybody quieted at the movement and only a couple seconds later the booth lurched, stopping.

There was only harsh breathing before Ed was pushed and the booth's door was opened. Ed stood outside the booth, hands on his knees as he tried settling the butterflies inside his stomach.

Hands grabbed at Ed's shoulders and he found himself staring into the emerald eyes of Harry.

Harry's face was contorted with fury, "Who are you? Why were you following us?"

Ed backed away from Harry, as the rest of the group gathered around him.

The blond haired girl with stunning blue eyes and a dazed look on her face approached Ed slowly.

She held out her hand to Ed, "I'm Luna, what's your name?"

Ed looked down at the pale hand before grasping it and shaking it. "I'm Ed."

Luna laughed and wandered back to Harry, "He's here to help Harry. He smells of the forest and the Thestral's." Then her other worldly eyes zoomed onto Ed, "although he has a lot of wackerspurts around him….they cause so much pain and hardship."

She gave Ed a large smile. "But the hindersturts will drive them away; you just need a little bit of hope."

The rest of the group did not look confused; instead, each had their own thoughtful expressions on.

Hermione's intelligent eyes were upon him, studying and evaluating while Ron sent him distrustful looks. Neville didn't look too bothered at the new addition to the group while Harry was glaring at Ed as if he had personally murdered his parents.

Ed patiently waited for a reply from the 'leader' and decided for now he would just go along with them.

He was here for a purpose after all. Nothing but a puppeteer played by the master.

Ed saw the frustration and the panic in Harry's eyes. Ed knew that he was not thinking rationally.

Throwing his hands in the air, Harry spat out, "Fine, whatever, just lets go. Sirius is in trouble."

Ed could see that Hermione wasn't very confident of just charging into a situation that was unknown but since she cared about Harry too much, she held all of her concerns back.

Harry suddenly stormed off, stopping before a pair of elevators and jamming at finger at the button.

Ron was quick to follow, with Neville right behind him and Luna next to him. Ed was left with Hermione's brown logical gaze.

Slightly agitated, not used to having actual human attention, Ed snapped, "What?"

Hermione shook her head, brown waves of hair swishing, "There's something not right about this….there's something not right about you."

A ding sounded and the elevator doors opened, Hermione quickly followed the others in. Ed stood frozen, the words echoing in his ears, there's something not right about you.

Swiftly shaking away the words, Ed entered the elevator a second before the doors shut. Elevator music sounded and an awkward silence ensued.

Ed leaned back into the wall of the elevator, and a metallic ping sounded as metal hit metal. He could feel the others eyes on him but they said nothing.

It was a long ride down to whatever floor, and as the anticipation rose in the air, Ed noticed the sticks they held tightly in their hands.

Wands. That's what the centaurs said they were called. So there are the magic humans?

There it was again. The feeling that he wasn't dealing with something scientific but something that was unnatural.

Elevator doors opened and everybody shuffled out. Silence enveloped them and Ed observed the hall that they had entered.

Doors as far as Ed could see lined up on both sides. Ron leaned into Harry, whispering, "Mate, which door was it again?"

Harry's emerald eyes flashed, "I can't remember. We'll just to check all of them."

Then he was walking forward for the first door. Ron stared after him incredulously, and choked out, "all of them?"

Then started the hunt for the right door, amongst the tenth door, Ed found out from Neville that basically, they were here because Harry had a vision.

Ed snorted to himself. This whole thing was ridiculous. A dull pang in his head startled Ed, gripping onto his skull Ed waited for it to pass.

A hand on his shoulder surprised him and Ed turned to find Luna's concerned eyes on him. "Is your brain too full with the forest? You can't die now. You're next."

For once, Luna seemed to be making sense. Ed stared at her with barely contained curiosity as the banging in his head faded. "What do you mean I'm next?"

Luna smiled, "The next guardian of course, silly."

She then took a hold of his hand, leading him to an open door where the others were looking around.

Shelves were littered with bright orbs, all whispering amongst each other, and tagged with a date and name.

Ed although glancing around, always found his eyes returning to Luna, wondering how she knew so much.

Guardian, huh?

Then Neville was shouting at Harry, "Look, this one has your name on it!"

All of them gathered around as Harry lifted the orb off of the shelf and into his hands. At Harry's touch, its whispers started getting louder and clearer.

Ed staggered a bit as he felt something tug at his soul. The tugging increased and Ed barely managed to keep up as his body was pulled towards a dark aisle. There were no glowing orbs here.

A sense of uneasiness spread through Ed. Something was off here, he could feel it. Then as he was surrounded by shadows, Ed felt hands wrapping around his throat and pulling him into a muscled chest.

"Look, it's the little kitten….are you here to see Reality?"

Ed shuddered as the slimy hands clenched around his throat, tight but not cutting off his oxygen supply.

Fists clenching and gasping, Ed spat out, "playing games, Reality? I thought that was Truth's thing? Out of ideas?"

A cold laugh escaped Reality, the darkness wrapping all around them, "Still in the denial stage, huh? I'll show you kitten, what is your purpose."

Then Ed was on his knees, a steel arm wrapped around his waist and a hand upon his face. Ed could feel the dread well up inside him.

The chilling hand upon his face traveled over his eyes, covering them completely and Ed shakily exhaled.

His muscles wouldn't move. He didn't have chance the moment he was dragged into this darkness.

Then it happened.