Automail and Bats

"I can't believe you robbed me!" Sokka exclaimed to Ed, who was grinning.

"I can't believe someone as observant as you didn't realize that it was me." Ed countered with a twinge of sarcasm in his voice.

"Your hood was up!"

"…I'm wearing the same clothes."

"So? Everyone in the Fire Nation wears red." Ed frowned and glared at Sokka.

"Why don't you make yourself useful and go grab my arm and leg?"

"And why should I do that?" Sokka questioned harshly.

"Because we're all such loving friends now, and friends help each other out. Right, buddy?" Ed smiled deviously at Sokka. Katara pleaded her eyes in Sokka's direction.

"Sokka…" She said sweetly.

"Fine," Sokka grumbled, "I'll grab your freaky leg and arm." Sokka stood up and stormed to the bison.

"I don't know why you two hate each other." Toph stated. "You both love sarcasm, science, and food. You could be brothers." Ed looked down, still with a slight smile of his face. It felt forced.

"Nah. My brother and I are different. He doesn't eat much…" Ed frowned and thought about Al. How was he doing? Ed really wished his little brother was here. He might have been able to prevent Ed from going insane and from lashing out at innocent people.

"You have a brother?" Aang asked.

Ed replied, softly, "Yeah."

"What's he like?" This time, the question was from Katara. How was he supposed to answer that without making these people think he was even more crazy? Sokka came back down and dumped the automail in front of Ed, then sat down.

"Hey, be careful with those! They're custom made!" Ed yelled exactly like Winry would have, and stared at Sokka menacingly.

"Anyway, my little brother, Al, looks like me. But shorter. His eyes and hair look like mine, but he keeps his hair short."

"Why'd you grow out your hair anyway? So you could look like a girl?" Sokka laughed.

"No! 'Cause it makes me look like a badass!" Ed subconsciously felt his hair, and realized the hair tie fell out a long time ago, so his hair was free and wild. He noticed Toph was shaking her head, confused.

"I don't understand. You're lying and telling the truth, at the same time." What? How'd she know?

"What are you talking about? I'm not lying!"

"That's a lie." How could this little girl seem to know every single lie Ed told was a lie?

"Well, we got into an accident, so he doesn't really look like me anymore."

"Must have been a bad accident." Aang supplied.

"Yeah, it was. In fact, it was the same accident that took my arm and leg." Ed grabbed his automail leg and inspected it.

"What kind of accident were you in?" Aang asked, curiously.

"A terrible one."

"But-" Katara rested her hand on Aang's shoulder and shook her head. Ed turned the leg around and looked at it from all angles. He didn't understand why it had caused him so much pain. Maybe it was a side effect from his moments of shock and adrenaline. Ed hoped so. He needed to get back on his own feet.

"AH! DAMN IT!" Ed screamed as soon as the nerves connected. The pain was nearly unbearable. Light streams of blood flowed onto the steel leg. Without hesitation, Ed pulled the painful leg out. Why was it doing this?

Katara rushed over to heal the fresh wounds, but Ed shooed her away.

"It's fine. Nothing I can't handle." Ed looked at his arm, and put it in to see if it did the same thing. Bad idea. The pain and screams were just as bad. He pulled out the arm quickly and looked at his automail with disgust. He then looked at Toph. She had been checking his automail out the other day.

"Toph," Ed still had trouble pronouncing their strange names perfectly. "Did you in any way, shape, or form, mess with my limbs?"

"What are you gonna do about it if I did? Fight me?"

"No, that's not what I meant. Automail has many wires inside that connect to my nerves. If any of them were rearranged, it messes up the whole system."

Toph sighed. "I might have bent the metal inside. Give 'em here." Ed handed his limbs over to the girl. He watched as the girl felt the metal while staring strait ahead the whole time. Ed could hear some faint noises coming from the metal and was relieved when his automail was handed back to him. He wasn't too eager to see if it worked, but he had to.

Putting his arm in made him wince slightly, but the pain was the normal one he felt when the nerves connected. His arm was finally back to normal, as was his leg when he stuck it back in.

Ed wiped his blood stained automail limbs with his red coat, and spoke to Toph. "I'd appreciate it if you don't mess with them again." Toph grinned.

"Sure, whatever you say."

"I'm serious. You have no idea how bad that hurt."

"Fine. I promise." Toph shrugged her shoulders, and she continued to look strait ahead with cloudy eyes. Ed couldn't help it, he had to know.

"Are you blind?" He asked bluntly.

"Oh, yeah." Toph waved her hands in front of her eyes. "I forgot."

"Then how did you fight me? How do you do your bendy thing?" Ed cocked his head slightly.

Toph sighed with a bored breath, like she had explained it many times before. "I feel the vibrations in the earth to see where everything is. That's also how I can tell if someone is lying; I feel their heart rate."

"So, you're like a bat?" It didn't seem that complicated to Ed.

"You mean a wolf bat." Sokka spoke matter-of-factly.

"Certainly you mean a lemur bat." Aang stroked the strange lemur's fur.

"Maybe a bat-adillo?" Katara questioned.

"No, just bat." Ed squinted one of his eyes. He was still never going to get used to the strange not-chimera creatures of this land.

"You're weird." Toph said. Ed glanced quickly behind him and saw a small billow of smoke rising from the volcano.

"As fun as it is to talk about my strangeness, I don't think it's safe to stay on this island." The others looked around and nodded their heads in agreement. They quickly climbed onto the bison and took off. Ed calmly breathed. He wasn't going to lose his cool.

"So, uh, Apple can fly pretty fast, huh?" Ed asked nervously.

"Appa." Aang corrected him.

"Right. Appa. The ten ton magical flying monster." Sokka smiled, but instantly remembered Ed was the one who made the comment, and returned his face into a frown.

"We'll need stop at the nearest town to re-supply. We're out of everything." Katara said after they had been flying for an hour.

"We're out of money. Except this one copper piece, which a certain someone took from us." Sokka glared at Ed.

"Stop fighting, guys. We'll figure it out when we get there." Toph growled.

During their long flight, Katara and Toph had filled Ed in on nearly everything that was going on in this land. He zoned out several times, but gathered what he thought was sufficient enough information. Basically, the Fire Nation had started a war a hundred years ago. They took over the land and exterminated an entire population of people (just like Ishval). The Fire Nation almost reminded Ed of Amestris.

The Avatar kept balance in the world. It didn't seem to Ed like he was doing a very good job. The whole world thought he had been killed! Despite Sokka's protests, Katara told him about the battle plan. They would attack the Capitol during an eclipse, because some spiritual mumbo jumbo blocked off their fire bending thingy. Basically, shit was going to go down.

Ed held on tightly to the saddle when they landed. He might have fun after all, despite being trapped in this country. When he asked Toph if he could help with the invasion, she had said, 'sure, why not?' Toph had also promised Ed that he would get to kick some serious butt.

Ed smiled at that. He could handle being awesome for a while.

Right, sorry for the shortish chapter. (It's not like it's my shortest chapter, though.) I'll try to update every day, or every other day. I depends if I work or not. This coming weekend, however, I won't be updating anything new, because I'm going to my first anime convention! Yay! Also, this chapter was definitely not a filler, no no. Hey, look over there! Distraction! *Runs away like hell.*