A/N: Kinda short chapter, sorry! Also Happy New Year everyone! Thanks again for reading, please give me/the story a fav if you're enjoying it :-)

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

Ayana

After Kimblee and Ed had left, Al explained to her and Winry why Ed wanted to go after Scar first. He was their best lead to finding the Xingese girl, and he had no plans to use Kimblee's Philosopher's Stone, which gave both her and Winry relief.

The next morning after they'd released the boys, she sat alone in the cell, contemplating her next move. She had no intentions of staying here; she needed to follow the boys. She could cut through the bars of the cell with fire, but that would take a while. Earthbending the walls would be faster, but it would also be louder. And then there was the issue of getting outside the fort itself without getting captured again.

She was still weighing her options when she heard the hallway door open and footsteps approaching. She looked up and was startled to see General Armstrong standing there with Falman, who produced the keys and unlocked the cell. She stood and approached the open door, giving the General an inquiring look.

Armstrong threw her staff at her and instructed sternly. "Get out of my fort." She promptly spun on her heal and stalked down the hall.

Falman motioned for her to follow him, and he led her to an elevator. As she entered, he reached inside and pushed a button, then turned and left her alone. The doors closed and she ascended. When they opened, she found herself in a short hallway with a door at the end. Strolling down the hall swiftly, she opened the door and found herself outside on a catwalk near the top of the fort's massive wall.

She approached the railing and gazed down, and she could see Kimblee's men loading up some cars with supplies while Ed and Al milled about in the snow. Wondering if they could see her, she opened her glider and held it next to her. As soon as the cars started moving, she was off.

She flew at a high altitude, keeping herself between the sun and the cars. She didn't want Kimblee, or any of the soldiers, to notice a flying red glider following them. For the first time since Ed had made it, she wished the sails were a less flashy color.

She didn't realize how far it was going to be. She flew for hours, and her arms were getting sore. Now would have been a really good time to have a sky bison in this world; at least they were more comfortable for long trips.

Finally, she spotted the town in the distance. As they got closer, she realized it was abandoned. There were no cars and no people. Well, no people besides Scar and the girl.

As Kimblee's caravan entered the town, zigzagging through the streets, she flew ahead and lowered her altitude to see if she could locate either of the targets. It didn't take long for her to sense their chi; they were in two separate buildings. The girl was with two other people, one of which she recognized but couldn't place. Scar was alone a few blocks away from the girl.

She climbed back up and circled above, being careful to stay in the sun, as she watched the caravan stop and everyone pile out of the vehicles. They dispersed themselves into search parties.

She could easily identify Al, so she followed him and his group as they separated and began searching. It took about ten minutes, but eventually the boys got an opportunity to shake the soldiers who were escorting them. She watched them climb up onto the roof of one of the buildings and take in their surroundings.

She circled away from where the other search parties had gone and glided down, approaching the roof where they stood. They must have spotted her because they stood waiting. Landing lightly in front of them, she asked, "Which one do you want, the girl or Scar?"

"You know where they are?" Al asked.

She nodded and pointed east. "The girl is over that way, and Scar is that way." She pointed southeast for Scar's location.

"Let's find the girl. She's the one we care about most, anyway." Ed replied.

"Did you guys ditch Winry?" She paused as she realized she could sense her. She pointed at Al. "Is she…?"

Winry's muffled voice came from inside his armor. "I'm in here, Ayana! Don't worry, I'm fine!" Ayana laughed.

Together they jumped from rooftop to rooftop, closing in on the building the girl was in. Eventually, they made it to the right one, and she pointed at the door leading inside the building to indicate that fact to the boys. One by one they entered and descended the stairs until they came to the floor labeled 'seven'.

Walking down the hallway, they could hear voices in a room further on. The voices stopped abruptly, and the girl poked her head out the doorframe to look at them. Upon seeing Al, her face instantly lit up and she ran towards him. "Alphonse!"

"Mei!" Al greeted back. "We've been looking for you!"

"You have? Really?" She squealed in delight as she tackled him in a hug. Ed and Ayana just looked on, confused on how they knew each other this well.

"Al, let me out!" Winry yelled as she banged on his armor.

"Oh, sorry!" Al removed his breastplate and Winry crawled out, much to Mei's dismay.

"Mei, you shouldn't go running off like that!" Her companion exited the room and approached them. His face was severely disfigured, but Ayana knew she'd met him before. Suddenly, it clicked in her brain.

"Dr. Marcoh!" She exclaimed. "What happened to your face?"

"We had to change my identity. But why don't you tell me why you're here?"

The other stranger appeared behind Marcoh and, upon seeing the Elrics, stood shocked. He blubbered to himself when Ed told him that no, they did not recognize him. He introduced himself as Yoki, and he apparently had a grudge to settle against the Elrics. He told an intricate story about how Ed had apparently cheated him out of his ownership of a mine, but she knew there had to be more to it than that. Everyone ignored him as he ranted on about how terrible his life was after losing his mine; they had more important things to discuss.

"I've learned a lot since we last met. Including what it takes to make a Philosopher's Stone. I know there's something rotten with this country and its alchemy, so we've decided to investigate other possibilities, one of them being Xingese alkehestry. We figured Mei could help." Ed explained to Marcoh.

Marcoh nodded. "You're on the right path, but you're not the first one to put these pieces together." He held up a bundle of papers that was bound together with strings. "These notes are his writings and theories. It's written in code, but I believe these notes hold all the answers we need. But they'll be impossible to translate without Scar."

"What do we need him for?" Ed replied angrily. Before Marcoh could answer, the ground shook and the sounds of an explosion reached their ears. Looking out the window, Ayana could see smoke rising from a nearby building. It was in the same direction that she had sensed Scar was.

Mei reached the same conclusion she had. "That's the building Scar was in!"

"Let's go!" Ed and Al immediately ran back up the stairs towards the rooftop.

Torn between following them and staying with Winry, Ayana froze. She met Winry's gaze and saw fear there, and that was enough to make her decision. Grabbing Winry's hand, she started toward the stairs and hurried down to the ground level. Al and Ed might be able to take the rooftop route, but she didn't think Winry was up for that.

They made it to the ground level and exited the building. Turning a corner, they ran right into Major Miles and two soldiers, who stopped dead upon seeing them. She cursed herself for not paying better attention.

Miles got over his surprise and smiled. "I should have guessed you'd still manage to show up here, Ayana. We're heading over towards that explosion. You girls should come with us." Not seeing any other choice, they followed him.

Upon reaching the building and climbing a few flights of stairs, they found Scar had been subdued and restrained by the brothers, and two human chimeras were lying unconscious on the floor. Miles ordered the chimeras tied up. Winry, being faced with her parent's killer, handled the situation pretty well in Ayana's opinion. While she did berate and scold Scar a bit, she was kind enough to tie off one of his bleeding wounds.

Major Miles and Scar were discussing their shared Ishvalen blood while she shifted her feet impatiently, having sensed Kimblee's chi approaching. She didn't want him to know she was here, since that would only spell trouble for Edward.

She was roused from her worries when she saw Miles raise his gun at Scar. Panicked at what was happening, she was about to shout out but was saved when Marcoh did instead.

"Please, don't take him as your prisoner! We need him alive!" He rushed into the room with Mei and Yoki behind him. "These notes are groundbreaking research that fuse alchemy and alkehestry, but all the important parts are written in ancient Ishvalen. Scar's the only one who can make sense of it!"

Miles put his hand to his chin as he thought. "Hmmm. So, we need to keep Scar free, and we can't let them know Dr. Marcoh is here, too. I think the best course of action is to take you all back to the fort and hide you from the senior staff in the military."

"Hold on!" Ed protested. "We're really going to take that monster back with us?"

"The giant transmutation circle this country was formed to make. General Armstrong told me all about it. We know something is about to happen in this country. Deciphering those notes is a top priority. We need to know what they say. That's more important than anything else." Major Miles countered. Ed didn't have a response to that. Miles continued, "I heard they're using Winry as a hostage against you. If we act quickly, we can disgrace Kimblee and get her to safety."

Turning to Scar, Miles addressed him and offered a deal to postpone his judgement if he would be willing to help them decode the notes. Scar agreed, although Ayana didn't really see that he had much of a choice. Grudgingly, Ed released Scar from his alchemized bonds. Al was talking to the now conscious chimeras, who eventually expressed the desire to abandon Kimblee and join their team, too.

Together, they came up with an escape plan, and a strategy to get Winry safely away without Kimblee immediately blaming the Elrics. Scar would take Winry 'hostage', allow Kimblee to see him doing so, and then make his escape. Ed and Al would put up a fight, or at least pretend to. Ayana would continue to keep her presence hidden, and everyone except her, the Elrics, Miles, and his two soldiers would escape through the old mining tunnels and head back to Briggs.

With the plan decided, she just needed to simply get out of the way undetected. She said goodbye to Winry, and to Al and Ed she assured that she'd continue to keep an eye on them from above.

With that, she headed for one of the back windows and leapt out, gliding just above the rooftops until she was well way from the building. Gaining altitude, she obscured herself in the clouds by just barely skimming the bottom layer.

She watched as an explosion rocked the building, and Scar stood on the rooftop with Winry. Ed and Al were down in the street with Kimblee, shouting at him. Scar successfully made his escape by creating another explosion. She watched as Scar and Winry met the rest of the group and headed to the nearby entrance to the mine shaft.

There was a winter storm blowing in, and it was coming fast. She knew she couldn't stay out here in this, she needed to find someplace to hunker down until it passed. No one else would be out in the storm, anyway. After ensuring the group had made it into the mines, she circled back towards Miles and Kimblee's groups.

After locating them again, she explored the surrounding buildings and eventually found one that suited her needs. It still had most of the windows intact but was still close enough to the group that she could sense them. Landing on the roof, she quickly opened the door, made her way down a level, and found a room with a fireplace. She threw whatever kindling she could find into the hearth, then lit a fire to warm her frozen bones from flying in the cold air. She hoped the storm didn't last too long.

Unfortunately, the blizzard raged all night. The wind howled through the abandoned rooms, which kept her awake most of the night. She wished she had someone with her; being alone in the dark, empty building with the intense storm whistling through the windows was enough to put her on edge. It was a small comfort that she could still sense everyone, though. A few hours into the night, she found she couldn't sense Al anymore. I'm sure he's fine, she reassured herself.

The storm finally passed around mid-morning the next day. The sky cleared to reveal a bright, sunny day, with fresh snowfall decorating the streets and buildings. She waited until she could sense the groups moving out, then departed from her safe haven and flew over to them with the sun obscuring her movements.

To her horror, she watched Kimblee and his two men heading straight for the mine shaft. Was it just a lucky guess, or had he figured out their ploy? Miles's group split up, and it looked like they were trying to head off Kimblee. She watched Ed take his own path as he followed Kimblee, but Al was nowhere to be seen.

Ed eventually caught up with Kimblee, and they looked like they were talking. Suddenly Kimblee brought his hands together and transmuted, obscuring him and Ed in a cloud of snow.

Panicking, she descended a little, wanting to help but unsure how to do so. She could hear Ed fighting Kimblee's men in the snow cloud, but she couldn't see Kimblee anywhere, and she was too high to sense him. He probably was headed down the mine shaft.

She circled the shaft, looking for a way in besides straight down. It looked like that was going to be her only option, though. She continued her circuit as she tried to pick the best angle that would allow her to enter with her glider.

She was just starting to think she'd have to land at the entrance and go in on foot when, as she came around for another pass, she caught a glimpse of Ed and Kimblee just inside the entrance, standing on the topmost catwalk. A feeling of foreboding came over her, and she slowed her speed to keep them in sight.

A glint of red caught her eye, and she realized Kimblee had his Philosopher's Stone in his fingers. Ed reacted faster than she did; she watched him charge Kimblee, slicing and dodging quickly around him and then dancing back to a safe distance. He must have knocked the Stone out of Kimblee's hand because he hadn't attacked with it.

Dismayed, she saw the red shimmer of a second Philosopher's Stone as Kimblee pulled it from between his teeth. Ed stood frozen in shock.

Immediately she increased her speed and dove into the mine at such a steep angle that a smooth landing would be impossible. Instead, she simply let go of her glider and vaguely watched it tumble further down the shaft. She landed on the catwalk between Ed and Kimblee just as she registered the Crimson Alchemist grasping the Stone, about to use it.

Acting on instinct, she threw a blast of air to her right, knocking Ed away to safety. Simultaneously with her left, she sent a continuous stream of fire at Kimblee, which he blocked with the Stone's energy. His evil smile beamed at her. He brought his hand up in the light of the flames and used the Stone to set off an explosion.