Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Legend of Korra

Ayana

Things shifted when Sheska called to tell them she was done with the transcription of Marcoh's notes. They still spent their days locked away in a room, but now they were decoding the notes. Being of no help to the boys with that, she spent her time either searching books for references to spirit portals or going there herself to look. Sometimes she could tell Al wanted to go with her, but he never asked, and she didn't offer. He needed to focus and help Edward decode those notes, not go exploring with her. Priorities.

She knew what they were going to find, having sensed the spirits inside Marcoh's Stone. She dearly hoped that once they found out, they would quit pursuing the idea of making one. She felt like she knew them well enough by now to know they would never take an innocent life, but the possibility of them still wanting it lurked in the back of her mind.

While they slaved away decoding, she made no headway finding a portal, either in the spirit world or in the books. Her frustration was mounting. She thought about trying to find the portals to her world, but didn't want to risk getting near Vaatu, especially this close to Harmonic Convergence. What if her presence caused him to break out early? He was trapped in the Tree of Time, which stood between the two portals to her world. Both were too close to the Tree for her to feel comfortable approaching them. No… she couldn't risk it.

She even tried communing with past Avatars again. Avatar Aang suggested patience and perseverance in her search, which was echoed by pretty much every other Avatar she called upon for advice. A lot of help that was.

It had been over a week. Just like every other day, she sat reading in the corner while the boys continued to decrypt the notes. Suddenly, Ed gasped loudly. She looked up to see them both staring at a sheet of paper, reading. His golden eyes flashed, and he swept his arm across the table, scattering books and papers everywhere. "To hell with it!"

Brosch and Ross burst in the door and scanned quickly around the room for any danger. Not seeing any, they assessed the nature of the now disheveled room, and Ed and Al's quiet, angry demeaner. "What's wrong? Don't get frustrated because you haven't cracked it yet…."

"We did crack it." Ed responded. Ayana's heart sank. Ed dropped to the floor, his head in his hand, and his voice shaking with despair. "Marcoh was right, this is the devil's research! The main ingredient for creating a Philosopher's Stone. It's human lives." The two officers gasped.

"How could the military authorize research into something like that?" Brosch wondered aloud.

"Please," Ed begged. "Please don't tell anyone about this. Pretend you never heard any of it." The pain in his voice broke Ayana's heart. It made her want to run over and give him a hug. He looked like he needed one.

Brosch and Ross exchanged a glance, then murmured agreement. They backed out of the room and shut the door quietly behind them.

Ed still sat on the floor with his head in his hands. Al was quiet, sitting completely still at the table. Ayana didn't know what to say, so she decided to say nothing. They were silent for a long time.

"Ayana." Ed said her name softly. He didn't look at her as he spoke. "You knew, didn't you?" Al gasped and looked over at her.

She hung her head. "Yes." When Ed didn't say anything, she continued. "I could sense the spirits in the Stone at Marcoh's. I'm sorry. I wanted to talk to you about it but…" She trailed off.

"I don't think I would have believed you, even if I'd let you tell me." Finally, he brought his eyes up to meet hers. "I'm sorry."

She was about to respond when the door slammed open and Major Armstrong burst in, crying about how tragic this all was. Brosch and Ross stood in the doorframe behind him, profusely apologizing for telling him. Something the Major said sparked a thought in Ed's brain because he shouted out to silence everyone.

"Do you remember what Marcoh said at the station? Something about "the truth within the truth?" He looked at Al to see him nodding. Ed smirked. "There's more to this than meets the eye. Major, do you have a map of the city?"

Somehow a map appeared and was stretched out on the table, and everyone gathered around it. Ed asked about military laboratories capable of conducting research on the Philosopher's Stone.

"What about that one?" He pointed at the map, which labeled the building under his finger as "Laboratory 5".

Sergeant Brosch answered, "That's the Fifth Lab, it's been closed down for years. The building was deemed unstable and dangerous."

Ed smirked. "That's our place. Look, right next door is a prison." He pointed again and everyone followed his finger. "Pretty convenient place to get ingredients for the Stone, and no one would notice because the prisoners would be written off as being executed."

The air in the room was thick. Everyone was uncomfortable. Ayana felt like she was going to be sick. Those monsters were taking condemned criminals and stuffing them into Philosopher's Stones?

"Edward Elric, I know you boys! You were thinking about sneaking over there for a look, weren't you? Promise me you'll stay here! Let us handle this!" The Major demanded.

Ed and Al quickly assured him they wouldn't go check it out. She made no such promise.

Edward

All three officers turned and left them. He paced the room, thinking. His brother was standing by the table watching him, and Ayana was studying the map intensely. He stopped pacing and closed his eyes briefly in thought. Promise or no promise, they had to check it out. Tonight.

He heard the window slide open, and he quickly turned to see Ayana squeezing herself out onto the windowsill. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I never promised anyone I was staying here. If they're killing people and sticking them in stones, they need to be stopped."

He smiled mischievously. "We're going with you."

She didn't argue as she turned and jumped out the window. Wishing it was that easy for him and Al, they began digging around the room to gather materials to transmute a rope. Suddenly she was back in the window, crouching on a ledge so thin that she shouldn't have been able to balance. "What are you doing? C'mon, just jump, I'll catch you." She disappeared again.

He looked over at his brother, who shrugged wordlessly and walked over to the window. He squeezed his massive frame out and jumped. Ed never even heard him land.

He crossed to the window and looked down to see Ayana and Al on the ground looking up at him. She waved to him, silently urging him on. He crawled out the window and looked away from the ground. Bravely, he jumped.

It was almost like he never jumped at all. He never got the feeling of free-falling. Instead, a whirlwind of air slowly descended with him until his feet touched the ground. He decided that being a friend of the Avatar definitely had its perks.

He realized this fact again when they finally made it to the lab. Seeing a guard posted at the front gate, they sneaked around to the back, but found no other entrance through the wall. Up and over was their only option. Ayana positioned herself above the wall by holding her body in the air with a small tornado. One at a time, she picked each of them up with airbending, carried them over the wall, and set them down silently before coming down to join them.

"You sure are handy to have around." He whispered playfully to her. She winked at him in response, which made his heart flutter for some reason.

The door to the building was blockaded. There was no way they could get through silently, at least not with alchemy. He looked over at Ayana and indicated the door. "Got any tricks for this?"

"Not any quick or quiet ones." She replied with a frown. "Let see if we can find another way in."

They all three looked around for a few minutes, and Ed finally spotted an air grate about ten feet off the ground that looked big enough to fit through. Standing on Al's shoulder, he heaved himself up into the opening, followed closely by Ayana.

"What are you doing? You should stay with Al."

"No way. If there's bad guys in there, you're going to need my help."

"I'll be fine, Brother." Al called softly from outside. "Just be careful!"

"Ugh, fine, but let's not get separated, okay? Stay close." She nodded and crawled after him.

Eventually they found another opening in the vent, which opened down into a hallway. They both dropped down as silently as they could.

"The lights are on. Pft. Abandoned indeed." He scoffed.

"Let's go that way." Ayana pointed to the left. "I can sense a chi presence down there." Ed nodded. He'd learned to trust her by now, so he didn't bother questioning it. They continued down a few hallways until they came across a large room with a giant transmutation circle inscribed in the floor. "Is that… alchemy?"

"Yeah." He bent down to examine the circle. "I'll bet this is what they use to create a Philosopher's Stone."

An ominous voice echoed from across the room. "Yes, you're correct, boy." A man in a suit of armor, wielding a sword, separated himself from the shadows and approached them. "You sure figured out a lot just by looking at a transmutation circle."

"I'm just good like that." He teased, not in a friendly way. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Number 48. My orders are to destroy anyone who wanders in here, poking around where they don't belong." He stopped and examined them. "Two against one is hardly fair. Who wants to go first?"

"Ha. That's rich coming from you." Ayana taunted. Ed didn't know what that meant but didn't have time to ask as she stomped her foot, earthbending a block from the floor, and punched it towards their opponent. He jumped sideways to evade her attack.

Ed quickly clapped and transmuted his automail into a blade. He ran forward to slice Number 48, who parried his attack easily and raised his sword for a counterattack. He was halted mid-swing as a thin blast of fire sent the man reeling backwards. The flames passed close enough that Ed could feel the heat on his face. He rushed forward again, swinging his arm and punching with his other fist. He parried and dodged, punched and kicked, trying to find a weak point or an opening. Elemental attacks continued to rain in whenever he hesitated long enough for her to get in a shot safely. He managed to land a kick, and a hollow ringing sound made him hesitate.

"What's this? I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're hollow inside."

"Well, you're perceptive." The armor answered back.

"I can tell by the sound. I spar someone like you all the time. It's interesting to know there's more than one idiot in the world who thought about bonding a soul to a suit of armor."

Number 48 lowered his weapon and tilted his head at him. "Hm. Perhaps I should reintroduce myself. When I was a convicted criminal on death row, I was known as a serial killer called Slicer. The people here recognized my skills, put me in this body, and made me their guard dog. Now. Enough talk!" Bringing his sword up again, Slicer charged him. He raised his arm and moved to block the attack, but ended up not needing to as Ayana landed next to him. A stream of fire erupted from her hands. Slicer skidded and rolled sideways to take refuge from the flames behind a pillar. "The blood seal's in the helmet, and the back. Jump, I'll give you a boost." She said, not letting up on the flames.

He didn't acknowledge her. He didn't even bother to ask how she knew that, or what she meant by 'the back'. He simply jumped, and felt the air propel him forward to land right next to the pillar. He instantly spun and lashed out with his blade, landing a hit on the surprised Slicer. The sword came down quickly and tore a gash in his shoulder. Thankfully, it didn't feel too deep.

Ayana must have jumped too because she now landed on the other side of the pillar behind Slicer, with small daggers made of fire in her fists. They were so hot they glowed more white than red. She attacked him by rapidly slicing at his body. Somehow, he managed to mostly block both of her blades, but a few hits landed, which left melted holes in his armor. He swung his blade at her, and her daggers dissipated as she switched to airbending, halting and holding his blade mere inches from her neck.

Anger coursed through Ed's blood anew, and he swung at Slicer's head, but he saw the attack coming and pulled his sword away from Ayana. He swung his blade and landed a strong blow to his right arm.

He felt the automail give.

Oh no, what happened? My shoulder doesn't feel right. Slicer had pulled back for another swing, and Ed leaped backwards to evade. He was surprised to feel another boost of air that sent him safely away. Ayana shuffled around Slicer, easily evading his sword. She was wielding her fire daggers again, coming in close to strike and dancing away quickly before he had time to swing at her.

Slicer's back was facing him. He saw his opportunity and took it. Sprinting towards them, he leaped for the helmet and extended his blade.

His arm connected with his target, the helmet rolled on the floor, and the rest of the body fell to the ground.

Ed walked over to the helmet, about to pick it up to start interrogating Slicer, when Ayana shouted his name. He turned just in time to see the beheaded armor extending the sword at him in a stabbing motion. He heard the whoosh of fire, but it was too late. The sword connected with his abdomen and cut deep. He staggered backwards, his hand clutching his side. Slicer's body raised the sword again, and Ed felt a brief moment of panic.

Suddenly Ayana was standing in front of him protectively, hurling rocks and fire at the armor. She moved so fast that her enemy didn't have a chance to raise the sword. With a sweep of her arms, she sent a blast of air to push Slicer backwards. As he stumbled, she ran forward and performed a sweeping kick, the same move she'd used on Scar, and sent a wave of fire at him. It connected at the point between the legs and the torso, and effectively cut off his legs.

Ed realized the fight was over and sank down against a pillar, wincing in pain. Ayana rushed over and knelt next to him to assess his injuries. "That one looks bad." She pointed at his side. He waved her off and addressed Slicer.

"We beat you, fair and square. So much for two against one, huh?" Now he understood what Ayana had meant when Slicer had complained about it. "Now, tell us what this place is, and who's running it?"

Slicer's helmet laughed. "I haven't had a good fight like that in a long time!" His torso agreed, saying something about how it was a nice changeup from the usual. The helmet continued "All right, kid, I'll tell you everything…."

Without warning, black spears shot from the shadows and impaled the helmet, piercing his blood seal and killing him instantly. Ed jumped in shock. Ayana froze beside him, her eyes wide. She stood and stepped slightly in front of him with her arms raised, facing the unknown adversary. "What are you?"

"Hmmm, that's an interesting question." The stranger drawled as she stepped from the shadows. If she hadn't looked so evil, she might have been beautiful. She had wavy black hair and a curvy figure accentuated by the black dress she wore, and she had an ouroboros tattoo on her chest.

She wasn't alone; a skinny man with long spikey hair was standing beside her. He had a similar tattoo on his thigh and was wearing shorts and a crop top. He grabbed Slicer's sword and started stabbing the blood seal on the torso. He was yelling angrily. "You almost killed a sacrifice! You would have ruined the whole plan, and then what would we have done?!" Slicer's torso twitched in death.

Edward didn't like the look in the lady's eyes as she examined Ayana. "Envy, who is this girl? She's not a sacrifice too, is she?"

"Don't think so." The man named Envy responded. "Must be an extra. Just kill her."

In a flash, the woman raised her hand and, impossibly, spears extended from her fingers. Ayana raised her own hands, earthbending a piece of the floor up to block the attack. But the spears pierced right through the rock.

And right through Ayana's left shoulder.

"No!" Ed yelled as he struggled to get up. The sliced rocks fell to the ground in a crash. Ayana's arms fell limply to her sides as the spears were retracted, and blood instantly soaked through her shirt. Silently, she fell to her knees and slumped to the floor.

"Ayana!" Ed finally forced himself to his feet and moved to stand above her, hoping to protect her from further harm. "You'll pay for that!"

But neither of the two attackers responded to him. They'd frozen, eyes wide, and were talking quickly to each other.

"You just killed the Avatar! Father's going to be furious!"

"You're the one who told me to kill her! Besides, she's not dead!"

"Not yet!"

They finally turned to look at him. "Listen boy, I want you to remember that we allowed you to leave this place alive. If you want the same to be said for your girlfriend, you'd better get her to a hospital quick before she bleeds out."

Ed stared at them, confused. They expected him to run? "No way, I'm not letting you get away!" He brought his hands together to clap, but was startled when his shoulder popped and the automail swung uselessly to his side. Damn it, not now!

"This is your final chance, alchemist. If you value her life, take the girl and go."

He realized he was now unable to fight, and he didn't have much of a choice. Besides, he couldn't just let her bleed out. He bent down to try and pick up the unconscious girl. It was difficult with only one arm, but he eventually managed to sling her over his shoulder. It worried him how much blood had already pooled on the floor. Glaring at the two strangers, he made for the door as quickly as he could without jostling his burden too much.

On his way out, he heard the woman say, "We can't afford to have any more curious visitors poking around this place. Blow it up."