Back once more! We're breezing through this and I apologize for being a couple hours late with an update but I went home and my brother taught me how to shoot a crossbow today! :D I did bring you a longer update so…forgive me!

Now back to the story for some action (finally)!


By the time Edward was finally dropped off at a larger port in the northern portion of Fire Nation, his friends weren't keen on letting him go off on his own at least not without help. The collected pot to help Hiro get home safely and without having to rely on possibly having to sneak around had grown massive since the soldiers had been paid good wages for successful battles recently. Edward felt slightly bad that he was profiting off of people getting hurt but honestly, he got paid for the same thing when working for the Amestrian military and while there were some notable exceptions like Mustang's crew, they weren't all good.

So, Edward found himself sufficiently supplied for his journey into the Fire Nation and after some late nights conversing with the past Avatars to create a strategy, he was set to go find a firebending master as well as get some intel about the Fire Lord. The plan so far was to head to the capitol city looking for 'work' and get inside the palace to figure out the layout and such since it had changed since Roku's time.

The money that the soldiers had given him would not only pay for enough to eat for at least a week but also enough to take a quicker mode of travel and also get a new wardrobe to match his Fire Nation surroundings. He had stayed in his Amestrian clothes for the duration of the trip over here and gained some of the non-fitting clothes of some of his friends so he had a good amount to work with. His bag was getting a bit heavier with clothes from all three nations in them as well as food and camping supplies but bought another one to even the load. His favorite purchase however was a red cloak. It had come extra, but he'd had the seamstress put the flamel on the back as a reminder of home and what he was fighting for. The symbol had puzzled the seamstress at first but the teen had paid her good money.

Now happily living in the nostalgia while reminding himself that as soon as he gotten this taken care of so Alphonse would be fine, he continued towards the capitol.

It took three days before he reached the capitol and found it in complete chaos. He had noticed that a solar eclipse had started once he reached the outskirts but found that there was an all-out battle going on between the waterbenders, earthbenders, and the Fire Nation. The only thing that caught his attention however was that the Fire Nation seemed to not be bending whatsoever.

He ducked into an abandoned alley and after a quick check around for anyone first tried to firebend but failed and then contacted Aang quickly. The airbender was surprised but quickly regained his composure.

"It's the Day of Black Sun. We, and I mean me, Katara, Sokka, and Toph, had a plan to invade the Fire Nation on the one day that the Fire Nation would be powerless but it looks like they were ready for it." He replied worriedly. Edward stared him at a moment before shedding his red clothes to reveal his black clothes underneath. His black bandana was still stubbornly covering all of his hair.

"Well then. Your friends are out there and it looks like they need some help."

"What?!" Aang exclaimed, "You're going to blow your cover! Weren't you going to master firebending while you had the chance?!"

"Plans change and this is not a good scenario for your friends to be in. Luckily I know that the ship I took here is headed back to the Earth Kingdom so no one will recognize me. Also, I'm happy that I bought some souvenirs from that village before getting here." Edward pulled out a black and white mask from his bag and unwrapped the large package that had been sticking out of his newer bag. It contained a set of dual blades. Aang looked doubtful but Edward merely glanced at him as he prepared for battle by tying his mask securely and using waterbending to freeze the tops of his bags shut.

"We're wasting time arguing about this if the Fire Army is going to get its bending back. I'm doing this and I can always come back later if I need to. We're helping your friends first."

Aang nodded before dissipating as Edward secured his bags on his person and sprinted off to join the battle. The mask gave him enough vision to see out of his peripherals for which he was incredibly thankful. From what he could tell, the invading force was getting stalled and being forced to begin retreating since the shade covering the area was beginning to brighten once more. He wasn't willing to look up and hurt his vision.

Using a trick that Pakku had taught him in the last couple days on the Water Tribe ship, he bended a large amount of water from a nearby pond and bended it as an ice bridge that he kept adding onto as he skated across with the ice blades he bended onto the bottom of his boots. Honestly, he thought it was completely badass and it honestly made things a lot quicker.

He suddenly made it to the middle of the fray and jumped off his ice bridge and bended that and the blades back into water and quickly formed an ice cloak. The forces of both sides glanced at him warily as they continued their clash. Forming water whips off of his cloak, he quickly whiplashed it towards a dozen Fire Army soldiers and shouted to the earth and waterbenders.

"GET OUT OF HERE. THE ECLIPSE IS ENDING AND THE FIRE NATION IS GAINING THEIR GROUND BACK!"

Heeding his advice, the younger benders began retreating while the older benders covered them. Edward set himself up in the middle of the fray.


Katara was beyond worried. She'd gotten separated from Zuko and Sokka and while she and Toph were doing just fine on their own, more and more Fire Army soldiers started appearing to fight and she could spot firebending in the distance that was progressively getting stronger.

"Toph, we're going to have to pull back!" She shouted over to the earthbender who had just sent a bolder crashing into a group of soldiers.

"Got it!"

They slowly worked their way back down the path that led back to the harbor. From what Katara could tell, their forces were pulling back but it seemed like the Fire Army was stopping. She would had tried to figure out what was going on but Zuko and Sokka suddenly entered their fray.

"Where have you been?!" She shouted as she sent another jet at the firebenders.

"Our local firebender knew about a secret entrance but it was too heavily guarded to get in. We had to turn around." Sokka yelled back. It was an unspoken rule that Zuko's name wouldn't be spoken aloud when in the presence of Fire Nation citizens.

Suddenly a large wall of Earth formed in the path, separating the Gaang from the attacking forces. "Come on!" Toph yelled, "We gotta get back! I can feel them bringing tanks in!"

The group began running back down the path past downed and unconscious troops towards the harbor when they finally reached level ground. What they saw surprised them.

There was a figure in all black with a metal arm and a mask covering his face and something covering the back of his head. He was using a water cloak similar to Katara's style with water whips shooting out at enemies but he also was fighting with a pair of dual blades extended by ice. The mystery waterbender was working with the older waterbenders and the Southern Raiders to keep the Fire Army from advancing on their forms of escape.

"That is…awesome." Sokka breathed as they paused in their escape and Katara couldn't help but agree. She hadn't seen waterbending combined with weapons like that as the masked bender used a water whip to grab one of his swords and fend off more soldiers. His now empty hand controlled the water cloak with more precision.

"We have to keep moving." Zuko said and suddenly they sprang back into action, taking down firebenders and regular soldiers as they fought their way back towards the dividing line.

"Katara! Sokka!" A voice yelled and the siblings looked over to where their father was fighting. The group quickly shifted their path. The masked bender seemed to focus on them momentarily from his position next to Hakoda.

"You have to get out of here while you can. Your group is the last big force we have against the Fire Lord." He said as Toph and Zuko covered for them along with the mystery bender while Hakoda took a break to catch his breath and talk to his kids.

"But dad-" Katara exclaimed but Sokka grabbed her shoulder and stared his father straight in the eye.

"Be safe." Sokka said simply and Hakoda grabbed his kids in for a quick hug before letting them go.

"Now get out of here." He told them then turned to the masked bender. "We'll take it from here. I don't know where you came from but thanks for the help. Go with them."

The bender nodded and began to slowly back up as Katara joined him in his pseudo-offense/defense. It took only five minutes for the Gaang and their new tag-along to reach Appa in his new battle armor. The bender dropped his cloak as soon as their reached the sky bison and only hesitated a moment before making sure his bags were still on him before joining them up in the saddle.

With a quick "yip yip" from Sokka, Appa flew off giving them a view of the last of the battlefield. Some of the subs had been sunk but there were enough to get most of the forces out. The only remaining invasion force were the older waterbenders and earthbenders as well as most of the Southern Raiders. The injured ones had been evacuated earlier on.

When the Capitol was out of sight was when the group finally let out a sigh of relief and let the fatigue bleed in. Well, a little bit. They still had another thing to deal with.

"So, who are you exactly?" Sokka finally asked of the masked waterbender who had yet to reveal his identity. The most he had done was take off his bags and unfreeze the top of them to make sure nothing was missing. The bender looked up and let out a chuckle.

"Someone who has heard a lot about you over the past few weeks." The person removed their mask revealing a golden-eyed teen.

"You're a lot younger than I thought you were…" Zuko said and the person shrugged.

"How do you know about us exactly?" Toph asked, moving them back onto topic. The person grinned.

"Let's just say a friend of yours said you were the best chance at ending this war. I have a lot at stake going into this and let's just say this is falling into my job description but I'm a little under-par right now."

"But who are you?!" Sokka exclaimed.

"My name is Edward Elric and I'm the universe's plan B."


Meanwhile, during the previous chaos of the invasion on the Fire Nation Capitol an ex Fire Nation general made his escape out of a high security prison and began to make his way out towards the Earth Kingdom but not before stopping by an old friend who happened to be a master in sword fighting…


And now we finally get the awaited meeting as well as some action and Iroh has been unleashed! Also, Edward working with frozen dual swords? Awesome.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also, just as a warning for next week: my nephews (well two out of three) are coming up to visit so I'm going to be watching them for most of the week. I'm going to try and prewrite them but just in case, I'm letting you all know now!