AN: Believe it or not, I'm still alive, and so is this story. I've just had a lot going on and then my computer pulled a blue screen of death so I haven't been able to write. But now I'm on break so I'll try to write more.

Anyway, here's the long awaited next chapter.

Disclaimer: STILL don't own Kingdom Hearts or Fullmetal Alchemist

"I don't see anything, are you sure we're going in the right direction?" Ed's voice was tired and frustrated, they'd been flying straight for a good few hours and had yet to come across anything remotely interesting, let alone significant.

"Yeah, it's there, we just gotta keep goin'" Sora yawned and leaned back in his seat. "Wake me when we get there…" he closed his eyes and settled in with a content smile.

"Hell, no." Riku whacked Sora over the head forcing the spiky haired teen to give up on his plan for a nap. "You're the one who picked this world so you're going to suffer through the rest of the ride with us!"

Sora groaned and stared at the map of worlds spread out on the dashboard. One specific world was circled in red ink, which was their next destination. Of all the worlds he had visited, Sora had thought that this particular one was probably the least equipped to deal with the current situation, so, surrounded by indecision, he decided that it would be their next destination. If only he'd realized how far they were before making the call. The trip there alone was taking the better half of their day and draining their patience. Not to mention, Donald still wouldn't let Sora drive the ship.

Al had actually managed to fall asleep but the rest of them were still wide-awake. Ed stared out into the empty space, the look in his eyes indicated a process of deep thought that Sora decided it was better not to interfere with. Goofy was doing…something…and Riku had been running through a list of worst case scenarios that Sora was sure were going to give him nightmares.

"So, if we lose Radiant Garden–" The teen continued.

"AGH NO MORE!" Sora screamed. "You're depressing me with all this 'worst case' stuff! Nothing's gonna happen!"

Riku smirked, "Well I guess with you around, what could possibly go wrong?"

"That sounded sarcastic…"

"What gave you that idea?"

"Is that it?" No-one had noticed that Al had woken up but now they were all looking at what he'd indicated. A world, blue and shimmering, as if it were being illuminated by light shining through a liquid surface.

"Yeah," Sora smiled, "We're here. Take us down Donald!"

"Right!" The Duck quacked.

"Wait…is that water?" Ed squinted at the world's surface.

"Yup!" Sora grinned. He'd forgotten to explain the world they were visiting to the Elrics.

"Uh…do we need special equipment or uh…"

"Nope!"

"Then how do we-"

"You'll see!"

And with that, the gummi ship dove right into the liquid surface of the strange blue world.

In the depths of the sea, in a dark cove at the bottom of a ravine where the sun could barely reach, a figure sat atop a stone. She stared into a large discolored bubble that illuminated the room with an eerie light, the only source of light in the cove. She smiled as the images in the bubble changed and danced before her eyes, eventually settling on a single image. "Well," she spoke in a smooth voice, "It seems we have some visitors."

"Wa-ah-aaaah!" Ed continued to topple over as he failed to find which way was up. He knew two things, he was under water, and he was running out of breath. As his head started to spin he flailed, searching for something to grab onto. His hand found something, and he gripped it tight and managed to pull himself into a relatively upright position. But when he looked up his heart sank. The surface was miles away, he would never reach it. As his vision started to swim he struggled to hold onto his last breath. The breath was shocked out of him by a voice.

"Brother!" It was Al's voice, but how was that possible. Ed didn't have time to think, as his last breaths left him, his body took over his mind and he opened his mouth to take in the air that wasn't there. Crap he thought this is it, I'm gonna drown. And then something happened. He opened his mouth, and inhaled, but he didn't drown. Instead, the water passed into his lungs as if it were air. He repeated the process, again, the same result. He was breathing…underwater.

"Are you alright?" The voice sounded strange, he didn't recognize it. He looked up and as his vision cleared he found himself looking at a young woman. Her red hair flowing through the water in waves, but what got Ed's attention wasn't her hair, or the fact that she wasn't wearing much. It was what she looked like. From the waste up, she had an ordinary, and rather attractive, human body, but from the waste down, there was only the tail and fin of a fish.

Ed stared, dumbstruck. Chimera? He thought. But that didn't seem right. That didn't explain anything. He checked his surroundings, he was definitely underwater, then he realized he was still holding something, it was the woman's hand, she must have grabbed him when he was struggling. The he realized he hadn't answered her question. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine…"

He removed his hand from her grasp and attempted to back away, but something went wrong, the simple walking motion failed and he toppled over again. He now had a great view of the ocean floor as he floated upside down. A grey colored fish tail hung in his face and he attempted to swat it away. When he touched it though, he felt a strange sensation in what should have been his own legs. His eyes widened in horror as he scanned his eyes up the strange appendage, only to find that it was connected to his own bare torso. This was his fish tail.

"Ah—aaah-AAAAH!" Ed panicked and flailed until something grabbed his arm. He was flipped over with more force than before and found himself face to face with his brother. Al's eyes were calm but concerned. Ed glanced around his surroundings, Sora and Riku were watching him, and Sora was trying not to laugh and failing. Both were shirtless, and bore similar fish tails. Ed glanced back at his brother, he was the same.

"Um…" The red haired girl floated close, unsure of how to help. She glanced at Sora for assistance.

"Don't worry Ariel, he's just not used to this." Sora didn't even try to hide his amusement.

"Okay." Ed said, finally calm, "What did I miss?"

"Well," Sora began, "this world is called Atlantica, and as you can see, it's underwater."

"No kidding."

"Well, okay, it isn't all underwater, but the important part is. Anyway we needed some, uh, modifications to adventure here. You can thank Donald's magic for that."

Ed checked, and sure enough the duck and the dog were floating nearby, sporting new, aquatic themed, body parts.

"So basically, you turned us all in to mermaids."

"Uh, mermen, technically." The Red haired girl, Ariel, offered.

"Whatever."

"Um right…then we should go to the castle…are you sure you don't need help?" Ariel stared at Ed who was swinging his arms in a maniacal manner to keep himself upright.

"I'm fine, I got this!" Ed struggled to say.

"Maybe it's because you're on the short side?" Ariel pondered.

'WHAT YOU SAY FISH LADY!" Ed fumed. He attempted to swing around in Ariel's direction, but succeeded only in turning himself back upside down. Al sighed and struggled to turn his brother upright.

"So," Riku interjected, "The castle?"

"R-right! This way." The stunned Ariel gave Ed one last glance and then started towards the exit from the cove.

The group barely made it ten feet out of the cove before Riku sensed something approaching…something dark.

"Dammit!" He shoved Ariel forward and summoned his keyblade in time to swing upwards at a heartless that had managed to sneak up on them from above. He slashed it across the face, but the water slowed down his swing and he didn't hit it with enough force. It recoiled backwards but didn't vanish. As it righted itself, Riku's allies managed to get their bearings and catch up with the situation. Sora and Al summoned their keyblades, Donald prepared to strike with magic and Ed…toppled over again as soon as he summoned his keyblade. Goofy attempted to help him up while the group charged.

The heartless wasn't a shadow, it was an aquatank, an emblem heartless that, in Riku's understanding, was largely exclusive to this unique, water filled world. It bore a large gash across its face were Riku had hit it, the wound was emitting the same dark energy produced by others when they were injured. But what caught Riku's attention, was that over its emblem, was the mark of the alchemy infused heartless. That concerned him, but he didn't have time to think about it.

Sora rushed the heartless form the right, it managed to dodge, but in doing so, it moved right into Riku's range of attack, the silver haired boy swung his blade and scored a direct hit with it's round face. The heartless disintegrated in the water just as Ed managed to pull himself upright.

"Don't tell me I missed it all!" The vertically and now aquatically challenged blond asked.

"K…I wont." Sora responded.

Riku was staring at where the heartless had been floating, when Ariel came over to him. "How long have they been here?" he asked her.

"A little while, I came back from the surface to help Daddy, but we're losing this fight."

"Don't worry Ariel!" Sora offered, trying to help, "We'll solve this problem! You'll see!"

"Sora!" Riku gestured for his friend to come over. "Did you see it?"

"See what?"

"That was an emblem heartless."

"Yeah."

"But it bore the mark of alchemy."

"Ok?"

"All the heartless we've seen so far with that power were 'natural heartless' actually, they were mostly shadows."

"Oh…"

"Uh…is this a bad thing?" Al asked.

"It means we have a lot more enemies to deal with." Riku frowned.

It took the group the better half of an hour to make it to the castle, even though they weren't that far to begin with. Most of the delays came from heartless attacks though a few were the result of Ed's swimming ability…or lack thereof.

When they arrived, the city, and the castle were not a pretty site. The outer parts of the city had been evacuated and were a wreck. There were soldiers everywhere, but most bore at least one serious injury. In the castle, the halls were lined with refugees and injured warriors. King Triton looked weary, like he hadn't slept.

Sora finished his report of everything that had happened and then stepped back to join his friends. Ed had found a very nice pillar to hold on to. Ariel stepped forward to speak with her father.

"Daddy, I think you should let them help, they know how to deal with these enemies better than we do."

The King nodded. "Of course, but I have a question, you said that these things were appearing because they were trying to defeat you, or were drawn to those who, like your friends, posses this strange power. You have all just arrived, and yet these monsters have been here for weeks. So what I want to know is why?"

"Well that's…uh…" Sora scratched his head, "Hey Riku, why is that?"

"W-why would I know!" Riku stammered.

"Is Greed here?" Al asked.

"Doubt it, The Land of Dragons is pretty far, and I don't think he had a gummi ship." Riku explained.

"Think maybe some more of our friends are here?" Ed offered.

"Unless they had magic to allow them to stay under water, they would be on the surface part, and so would the heartless, so I don't think that's it…unless its something that isn't really human…something like…"

"It's one of the others." Ed chimed in. "One of the other homunculi."

"Here?" Al looked concerned.

"Probably using it as a base or something." Ed offered.

"So, how do we find 'em?" Sora asked.

Ed thought about it and then sighed. "No idea. I'm gonna guess that it's a big ocean. I don't suppose you have any sort of data or reports of where and when these things have been showing up? Or a map?"

The king just blinked. "Didn't think so…" Ed scowled. "That's how I'd normally find something like this…"

"Actually," Ariel chimed in, "They might have stuff like that on the surface!"

"S-surface? As in dry land!" Ed's mood improved at the thought of good old terra firma.

"Yea, my husband, Eric, his kingdom has been fighting these too. It was their expert soldiers who discovered that they were coming from the ocean. That's why I came back down here."

"You think they might know where the heartless are coming from?"

"They didn't know when I left, but maybe now?"

"Even so, if they have any data, I might be able to figure it out…Ok, I'd like to go to the surface!"

The shadowy woman in the dark cove swiped her hand through the bubble and it burst into a ray of purple light that then faded, leaving the cove in complete darkness. It had been useless for a while, ever since the children had entered the palace.

"That Triton is still too strong, he can block my ability to spy on them! Guess I should have known, considering this was made by a witch that they'd dealt with on a regular basis…No matter, they wont find me…"

"Oh god I missed the sky!"

About 50 or so feet from the beach the ocean dropped off into a deeper part, that's where they were now, discussing the plan. Ed was to regain his ordinary human form, and go ashore to find information. The rest would stay in Atlantica and try to find out whatever they could while helping to keep the heartless at bay.

"Ya ready?" Donald asked.

"Well yeah, but aren't you going to wait till I'm closer to the beach?" Ed responded.

"Well then hurry up!" Donald quacked!

"Jeez, alright, I'm going." But Ed's movement was interrupted by a splash. A large aquatank exploded out of the water, spraying the entire group and leaving them dazed. As it dove back below the water, the heroes scrambled to figure out what had happened. Suddenly Donald squealed, and disappeared below the surface.

"DONALD!" Sora shouted as he grabbed the duck and pulled him back up. "Dammit! It's got him, it's trying to pull him down!"

"GWAH! Get ready kid!" Donald half quacked/half choked at Ed.

"Eh?" Ed started in confusion.

But before he had time to respond or get an explanation, Ed was surrounded in a green light, when it faded he found himself back to the way he usually was, with a pair of legs and fully clothed in heavy garments that were taking on water fast.

"Crap!" He struggled to stay above water as Donald and Sora were dragged under by the aquatank.

"Oh no!" Goofy cried as he dove after them.

"Al, help your brother!" Riku commanded as he dove under as well.

Al grabbed his older brother around the waste and hightailed it for the beach. He didn't make it all the way, finding it impossible to swim more than a certain distance without getting beached, but he made it to a spot where Ed could stand.

"You going to be ok brother?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah, fine." Ed responded, spitting out salt water. "I'm more worried about the others right now, you go make sure they're ok."

"Right." And with that Al dove below the waves. Ed dragged himself onto the sandy shoreline, waterlogged clothes weighing him down. He stared up at the city walls, which were battered and scorched and even broken in a few places, with jagged cracks running across the white stone. Some guards could be seen, walking atop the wall, one saw Ed on the beach and called to another. The guards stared at him in confusion.

Ed waved to the guards. "Hey, think you can let me in!"

AN: Hurray New world! And hopefully it'll be less than 6 months before the next chapter comes out XD