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

Edward

It was odd, Ayana running off like that. Something about it didn't feel right. She'd left a note, but he didn't believe for a second that it was true. For one thing, she didn't have access to the library without either him or Al with her. Plus there was that thing with the Colonel last night. What had they talked about, and why wouldn't she tell them?

Maybe they should go find her and see what she's up to. But he didn't know where they'd even begin to look. Central is a huge city, she could be anywhere. Mustang might have a good idea of her whereabouts, but Ed doubted he'd get anything out of his superior, especially after he basically attacked him last night. Besides, he had no desire to see that murderous bastard's face right now.

Suddenly the door burst open and Major Armstrong entered their hotel room.

"Edward Elric!" He exclaimed as he grabbed his automail arm. "Hm. Your automail seems to be broken. This is not acceptable; we must get it repaired at once. I will escort you to Remembool!" And with that, he dragged Ed out the door.

"Major, what the hell? What are you doing? Let me go!" He squirmed in the Major's arm, trying to break free. This didn't make any sense, his automail was fine. Besides, his mechanic was in the room they'd just left! If he truly needed a tune-up, he could have it done right here.

"I'm sorry, Edward, but these are my orders." The Major replied solemnly.

Ayana

The day dragged on slowly. She'd gone with Hawkeye as instructed, who'd positioned herself in a tall tower near the warehouse. There really weren't any other good vantage points nearby, but Ayana had managed to find a construction crane a few blocks down. She didn't have a very good view, being so far away, but she could get over there quickly if needed.

They kept comms open as they waited for Hughes' killers to come reclaim Barry. She listened as Roy talked to 'Elizabeth', mostly about nothing. She ran through the codes in her head, trying to commit them to memory. Elizabeth is Hawkeye. Jaqueline is Havoc. Kate is Fuery. I'm Renee. She couldn't remember Falman's codename.

The sun climbed up into the sky, and eventually began to sink into the west. She was starting to think that no one was going to show when she heard Hawkeye say over the radio. "Hold on, Roy. We have a customer. Kate, can you let Jaqueline know?"

This was it. Finally. She was sick of waiting.

Hawkeye and Mustang kept talking, and she heard multiple gunshots echo in the air around her. She unfolded herself from where she'd been sitting and opened her glider, ready for anything.

It sounded like things were starting to go downhill. Hawkeye mentioned a customer of her own, and Ayana heard gunshots through her earpiece. Mustang was shouting at Hawkeye, but she never responded.

Ayana jumped from her position and swooped over to the tower Hawkeye was in. She arrived just in time to see a fat man approaching her aggressively. Fuery was there, too, and they both looked to be out of ammo. They stood frozen, backed into the wall, as the man threatened them.

She folded her glider at the last second and flew through the window with her foot extended in a kick. The man stumbled sideways at the impact but was otherwise unharmed. His chi felt weird, but she didn't have time to think on it. He turned to face her and yelled out happily.

"Another snack! Oh goodie!" He approached, opening his jaws impossibly wide…

She was not going to be anyone's snack today. She firebent a blast at him with enough force to send him out the window. The smell of his burning tongue hung in the air, making everyone gag.

Hawkeye and Fuery relaxed. "We need to get down to the street." Hawkeye announced, and together the three of them ran for the stairs and hurried down. By the time they got to the street, a car was waiting for them with Mustang at the wheel.

"Colonel! You were supposed to stay in your office! No matter what happened to us, your involvement could have been kept a secret!" Hawkeye railed on him.

He had the sense to look remorseful. "Sorry, Lieutenant, but when you didn't respond I had to make sure everyone was all right. Get in the car."

They moved to obey when a familiar voice calling out made them all turn to look down the street. None other than Alphonse himself was running towards them. He stopped by the door.

"Are you going after Hughes' murderers?" He asked quickly.

Mustang paused a moment as he studied Al, then asked, "You in?"

"Yeah." Al answered immediately, and they all squeezed into the car together. Al only spared a quick glance at her. He didn't seem mad at her for disappearing this morning, so that was a relief.

Mustang punched the gas and took off after Barry, who was pursuing whoever had triggered their ambush.

"Thanks for the save back there, Avatar." Hawkeye said from the front seat, reloading her guns as she spoke.

"No problem. Who was he?"

"I don't know, but he's a hard one to kill. I pumped him full of bullets, but he didn't seem to care."

Al gasped. "Did he have an ouroboros tattoo?"

Hawkeye turned to look at him with a surprised look. "Actually, yeah, he did. On his tongue."

"In that case, you were probably dealing with a homunculus." When Mustang and Hawkeye gasped, he explained, "I didn't believe they could exist either, but then I was taken captive by one. He called himself Greed, and I saw him get beheaded and burned to a crisp, but his body just regenerated itself."

"That thing is still alive, and he's probably after us by now. I didn't burn him nearly as bad as I did Greed." Ayana admitted. Now she wished she'd put more effort into those flames. But since that thing's a homunculus, it probably wouldn't have done much good, anyway. He would have just regenerated, just like Greed did.

They never did see the fat one again, though. They continued following Barry all the way into town until he stopped in front of a military building. He pointed at it and said to the car's occupants, "My body went in there."

Body? Ayana thought. He was wearing armor, maybe... no, he wasn't wearing armor, he was the same as Slicer and Al. He was a soul bonded to armor. So the guy we've been chasing is his original body? Weird.

They all climbed out of the car and gathered to organize their entrance into the building Mustang identified as the Third Laboratory. Apparently, Barry was too impatient for strategizing, though, because he simply raised his knife and stormed the front door, hollering the whole way.

Mustang smirked and glanced around at the group. "Follow my lead." Together they entered the building with Mustang yelling orders to the military personnel inside.

"Evacuate the facility! The intruder is a dangerous serial killer! My men will handle this!" None of them questioned his authority as they rushed to obey. They followed Barry's path of destruction easily and descended a metal staircase into a basement. The vibe of the place gave her shivers. At the bottom of the stairs, the hallway split into two directions, and it wasn't clear which way Barry had gone.

"We need to split up." Mustang decided. "Havoc and I will go this way with the Avatar. Al, go with Hawkeye down that way."

"Yes sir." Hawkeye confirmed, and they went their separate ways.

They walked slowly down the hallway. There were many side rooms, and they were in the enemy's territory now. There could be anyone or anything lurking in any of the rooms, so they were taking no chances.

They descended another set of stairs and continued. She froze as she sensed an unexpected presence in one of the rooms ahead. It was someone she'd met before because it felt familiar.

Mustang turned to look at her when she stopped. "Something wrong?"

"There's someone in the room up ahead." She told him. "Third door on the left."

Mustang and Havoc locked eyes, silently communicating to each other. Raising their pistols, they walked forward cautiously. Upon reaching the room she had indicated, they rushed in quickly with their guns raised, scanning the room. She followed them with her hands poised at the ready.

"Well, now, it's bad enough you stood me up on our date, and now you point a gun at me?" Ayana recognized her as the lady from the Fifth Lab, the one with the curvy black hair. The one who'd stabbed and nearly killed her with her freaky spears.

Mustang noticed her tattoo. "Havoc, your girlfriend has the tattoo." Then to both of them, "This must be the one Barry told me about, her name is Lust."

Havoc blustered as he stuttered, "I've never seen the tattoo before today sir! And I swear, I never told her anything related to the military!"

"No that's right, he didn't." She confirmed in a sultry voice. "Take a good look, boys." She grabbed the skin on her chest and pulled it apart, revealing a Philosopher's Stone. They all gasped. "This is my core. Destroy this and you destroy me. But I warn you, it's nearly impossible to kill me, and I don't intend on letting you leave here alive."

She seemed to notice Ayana. "Ah, what a nice surprise, the Avatar has come to grace me with her presence. Father will be pleased, I'm sure he'd like to meet you."

She didn't feel like dignifying that with a verbal answer. She snorted her disapproval instead.

"Don't worry, I won't make the same mistake again. I'll make sure my attacks are non-lethal this time. I can't say the same for your friends, though." She added. "I really don't want to kill a candidate for sacrifice, but it looks like I don't have a choice." And with that, she raised her hand, extended her spear fingers, and swiped.

Both Mustang and Havoc instantly began shooting, but her spears cut through both of their guns and sliced them to pieces. Mustang reacted quickly by raising his hand to snap, having donned his ignition gloves earlier.

Lust saw his intent and thrust a spear though a water pipe in the ceiling, dousing the room in water and rendering his gloves ineffective. Ayana stepped forward and bent the water into a tidal wave, sending it to crash into Lust. She was pushed back against the wall but managed to stay on her feet. She raised her fingers and tried to spear Havoc, but Ayana deflected the attack with a quickly created block of ice.

"We need to pull back, it's too close quarters in here!" Mustang shouted, and together they turned and ran out the door. They stopped in the hallway. "Avatar, I'll transmute the water into hydrogen gas. When the transmutation is complete, throw a fireball into the room." She nodded.

Mustang threw his hand down, and the blue light of an alchemic reaction flared. When the flash died down, she gathered her energy into her hand and threw fire into the room. A massive explosion rocked the area.

When they deemed the room safe, they cautiously ventured back in. They gazed around slowly, searching for any sign of Lust.

"She's definitely cremated. I'm pretty familiar with that stink." Mustang commented as he plugged his nose with his hand.

"No, she's still here, I can sense her." Ayana replied. She'd barely spoken the words before spears appeared from seemingly nowhere and stabbed Havoc in the lower back.

"Havoc!" Mustang yelled as he ran to help his friend. But the spears moved faster than he did; they retracted from Havoc and instantly pierced Mustang's stomach.

"Colonel!" She shouted. Lust stood from where she'd been lying in the rubble and retracted her spears from Mustang, who stumbled to his knees, breathing hard. Havoc had fallen to the ground, unresponsive.

Ayana was shocked at the quick turn of events for a few too many seconds. She saw Lust grab a broken water pipe from the debris in the room, saw her charging towards her, but it was too late by the time she reacted. Lust impaled her thigh with the pipe, thrusting completely through the muscle. She screamed at the pain and fell over to her side on the floor, curling into a ball.

"Don't worry, I told you I wouldn't kill you. Instead, you can sit here and watch your friends bleed out." She stepped over her shaking body. "I'll be back to collect you later." And with that, she left.

Damn, her leg hurt. She tried to stop shaking and assess the damage. It wasn't a large pipe, maybe a half inch in circumference, and around a foot of it protruded from the bottom of her leg, three feet from the top. Testing how bad it would be to pull out, she reached and touched it, and was rewarded with fire shooting through her nerves. She laid back, panting.

Crap, Mustang and Havoc. She raised her head to look at them. Havoc was still unconscious, and a small pool of blood was circling his body, mixing with the flooded room to make a swirling sea of red. Mustang lay on his back panting. He was holding his hands to his side, trying to staunch the flow of blood. His injury was bleeding much faster than Havoc's. They had to stop it, quick.

Groaning, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, trying to ignore the pain the movement caused. Mustang looked up at her at the sound, and his face was laced with his own agony. She tried her best to focus, to control the fire in her hand and create a focused flame hot enough to cut the protruding part of the rod shorter. It took her a few tries, but she was finally able to focus enough to get the job done. Mustang was still watching her silently. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the pipe and yanked as hard as she could, crying out at the pain.

She fell on her side from the agony. The pain was unbearable as her muscle ached. She lay there panting and trying to catch her breath as she waited for the worst of the throbbing to subside. It finally dulled some, and she looked down to find she'd successfully gotten the whole thing out in one pull.

She crawled over to Mustang and pulled his jacket and shirt away from his injury. He didn't object to her touch.

"Y-you need to cauterize it." Mustang stuttered. "I'll bleed out if you d-don't. Just do it quick." He moved his hands away from the wound and closed his eyes. Bringing a flame to her hand, she held it to his injury and tried not to listen to his tortured screams.

When it was over, she wrapped Havoc's injury as best she could while Mustang lay gasping. Havoc was bleeding, but not mortally so. By the time she was done with him, Mustang had recovered enough to help her wrap her leg. After that was all done, they both sat for a moment, panting from the work.

"We need to find Al and Hawkeye." Mustang declared. He climbed unsteadily to his feet. "Can you walk?"

"I'll manage." She answered as she stood, too. She tried to put weight on the leg and it held, but it hurt like hell. He offered her his arm and she took it. She leaned on him as they stumbled together out of the room and down the hall, following Lust.