Captured

Ed opened his eyes seeing the never ending white of the place where the Gate and Truth resided in and groaned. Great what does he want now? Was Ed's thought as he turned to face the Gate behind him looking around for Truth when it wasn't floating in front of it.

"Now now is that how you should treat someone who helps you mister Al-chem-ist I could have left you for the spirit if that's what you think." Ed nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around coming face to face with Truth as the godlike being smiled at him.

"Dammit Truth what the hell why am I here again I'm tired of your games so what do you want already?" Ed's shouting made Truths smile disappear for a moment before it returned in full force as it chuckled at the annoyed Alchemist.

"Simple mister Al-chem-ist I'm here to explain this world more interesting inhabitants that the humans call spirits." Ed narrowed his eyes at Truth but waited for it to continue. He knew he couldn't force anything out of it that Truth didn't want to give up and it loved to annoy him with this by explaining things at the last possible moment.

"The Spirits as they are called are beings much like myself but on a lesser scale and this world and theirs are tied together as such they often make claims to locations in this world and in rare cases cross over to become mortal though I use the word loosely as the more accurate term would be killable so they could be closer to this world." The explanation shocked Ed at the thought of more beings like Truth no matter how different they were from the Keeper of the Gate.

Finally settling his thoughts Ed asked, "If they're like you than why did that one earlier run when you came and grabbed me?" Ed didn't expect a real answer from Truth and was not disappointed.

"Now that would be telling but let's just say they wouldn't dare bother me but are time is up and you have more work to do mister Al-chem-sit don't disappoint me now." Before Ed could say anything everything went black around him.

Ed woke up on a bed roll inside and unknown building that looked somewhat familiar to him and the sound of several people moving around him. Getting up Ed noticed the people around him looked happy about something which confused Ed. Wasn't their some big spirit trying to destroy the village earlier or did I miss something.

"Ah Master Edward it's good to see you up and about again." Ed turned around to face the Village Leader as he smiled at Ed but it soon turned into a small frown as he said," I am sorry you were not able to join your companions last night but you were still unconscious so they thought it was best you remain here till their return."

"Wait where did they go that was so important they couldn't wait for me?" Ed was a bit hurt and more than a little angry that Aang and his friends left without him but he couldn't do anything about at the moment other than wait for them and knock some sense into them when they came back.

"Avatar Aang said he needed to go to the Fire Temple in the Fire Nation in order to speak with Avatar Roku during the day as the solstice is the only time he will be able to talk to him." Nodding at the man Ed turned to help the people when a banging could be heard at the door.

"Strange who could that be?" the Village Leader asked as he went to answer the door he was suddenly forced back with a sudden cry. Ed looked at the doorway and saw a person in red armor he recognized as the same as the invaders at Kyoshi Island. Fire Nation than, my guess there either after Aang or just conquering the town.

"Now tell me where the Avatar is?" Ed shook his head at the teen's voice as he walked forward making sure to draw everyone's attention.

"Why do you think the Avatar was here?" Ed asked him doing his best to fake curiosity and confusion but it came out more accusing and suspicious making the teen narrow his eyes at him.

"His Sky Bison was seen leaving here now answer me little peasant where…" he never finished as Ed sent him flying out the door yelling, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET SO SMALL HE CAN FIT INSIDE A TEA CUP."

Everyone watched as Ed ran outside fully intent to cause as much pain as possible to the person who dared comment on his height or rather lack of height. Turning the Village Leader and the Elder faced each other than looked back out the door when they heard the sound of a body flying through the air again followed by another war cry before saying the same thing. "I don't want to be that guy."

Zuko found himself flying through the air again after the strange midget sent another right hook to his gut forcing all the air out of him again till he finally hit the ground coughing as he tried to catch his breath again. He was starting to hate this peasant but at the same time he felt a small twinge of fear as he looked into the golden fire in his opponent's eyes as he stood a good ten feet from where he had punched him.

"I'm NOT short got it!" the golden eyed boy yelled at him as he got to his feet. Zuko didn't say anything just glared at the other boy with as much hate as he could muster which at the moment was quite a lot but the boy didn't even seem to notice.

Deciding to end the stare down as it wasn't helping him Zuko said, "I don't care if you're short or not tell me where the Avatar is!" Zuko watched as the boy in front blinked a few time surprised at what he said before they narrowed at him with a steely glint making his small twinge of fear grow slightly but he shoved it back down as he glared at the boy.

"He left didn't say where he was going just up and left not that I care." Zuko glared at a building to the side of him as he thought how to proceed from here. Looking back at the boy in front of him he noticed something off about his hair witch while it looked brown there were some streaks of gold in it suddenly remembering something his soldiers told him shortly after the failed raid of Kyoshi Island.

Flashback

Zuko and Iroh walked along the ship as his men returned after the Avatar escaped from them again and angering the banished prince again when he and Iroh came upon a strange site. Several of the men were struggling to get out of what looked like metal shirts with the sleeves wrapped around their bodies.

"What happened here?" the men turned to face him and his uncle who was studding them curiously at the sight of the metal shirts.

"Sir while we were attacking the village a small boy with golden like hair and eyes wearing a long red coat with some sort of stave symbol on the back appeared out of no ware before somehow turning are armor into these bindings." The man along with his companions looked at the prince worried he wouldn't believe them hell most of them didn't believe it themselves but they had seen it with their own eyes.

Zuko narrowed his eyes at the men his anger evident at them when Iroh spoke up, "It's true my prince I watched it happen myself." The soldiers all let out a sigh of relief when Iroh spoke up and Zuko turned to face him.

"What do you mean you saw it yourself you were still on the ship when we attacked and why would you believe such an obvious lie?" the soldiers felt offended at being called liars but they couldn't blame the Prince for not believing them.

Iroh though looked at his nephew calmly as he took a sip of his tea before continuing, "I was on the ship when you left but I saw something that caught my eye and went to investigate that was when I saw the boy the men mentioned when he turned the armor into the bindings these men are currently in." Zuko glared at his uncle but he knew the man would never lie to him he cared for him enough not to lie to him so he just turned and headed to his room.

Flashback end

"You, you were the one from Kyoshi Island." Zuko yelled making Ed blink in surprise again when this bastard recognized him.

"So, what about it?" he really didn't like the way the bastard was staring at him now and debated on how he was going to take him down when the bastard spoke.

"You were the one who turned my men's armor into the strange binding." Ed just shrugged at him neither claiming it nor denying it as a plan formed in his mind.

Smirking Ed clapped his hands before slamming them into the ground while watching the blue electricity surged toward Zuko. Zuko for his part tried to back away but was not expecting the ground under his feet to suddenly turn into a giant hand and wrap around him in a firm grip pinning him in place.

"Ya well as fun as this was now I need to figure out what to do with…" Ed didn't get to finish his sentence when a sudden chop to his neck sent him sprawling and unconscious. Standing above Ed was an Iroh with a serious look on his face before returning to his normal peaceful look as he studied the stone fist Zuko was trapped in.

"Uncle!" Zuko cried out, he was relived he was here to help when he did but was also angry at needing his help in the first place as he tried to get out of the stone fist.

"Prince Zuko I am glad to see you're alright if a little stuck at the moment." Iroh chuckled at his own comment while Zuko glared at him before sending a concentrated blast of fire at the base of the fist breaking it and sending Zuko tumbling to crater that formed under him and shattering the rest of the fist.

"Uncle did you learn where the Avatar was headed." At this Iroh sighed but nodded. He then went over to Ed and picked him up grunting at the unexpected weight the boy seemed to have for his size. Not that he would say that out loud he saw what the boy did to his nephew for commenting on his height and didn't want to see how far the boy could send him flying.

"Uncle what are you doing." Zuko asked when he saw his uncle caring the golden eyed boy.

Iroh tuned to look at Zuko before saying, "The people said he was a companion of the Avatars that was left behind so he could recover from his fight with the spirit of this forest." the part Iroh didn't say was that he had received several letters from the White Lotus concerning Edward and wanted to meet the person who could make Bumi worry.

"I see then he will have information we could use." Zuko said as they tied Ed to the rhino and made their way back to the ship.

I'm so sorry for not updating this sooner but my computer actually did crash on me and took forever to get fixed plus i did get a little lazy on writing it so that parts my fault. again I'm sorry for the long update.