The silent brick corridor was nearly as dark as Mustang's hair on a rainy day. Mere wisps of sunlight managed to snake in through the small cracks in the boarded up windows, highlighting clumps of displaced dust as the two figures shuffled forward.

Every few metres a telltale flash of gold and red would slip past these spotlights then vanish back into the gloom, shuffling along next to the wall. Edward's uneven footsteps were accompanied by the muffled metal clanking of his brother's body behind him as they gradually made their way through the darkness. His flesh hand was gently brushing against the damp bricks beside him, both as a guide and in search of the door which would lead them to the middle of this vast compound. Hopefully.

Neither brother dared to speak. It was a definite sign of how deep the shit was that they were in. For at least 3 hours now, they had been trapped and on the move inside what could be considered enemy territory; an unassuming research compound a few miles out of the city. Despite the fact that Roy knew they were there and Ed had often found himself in many, much stickier situations he couldn't shake off the uneasy tension that had been building in his stomach.

The brothers had seen the kind of people who were slinking around inside this building when they'd first snuck in and one look had been enough to confirm that they were bad news. It seemed that many could use strange forms of alchemy that Ed had only ever read about in his father's books long ago and the brothers had been horrified to discover that these alchemists were researching soul transmutation- similar to what Ed had used to bind Al's soul to his armour. It seemed entirely too coincidental that Mustang had chosen to send them on this mission and now thinking back, Ed could almost picture the man's blank, innocent half smirk that he had worn as he had passed the young alchemist the mission file.

A nice, light information reconnaissance mission. Not exactly suited to your usual hit and run tactics but I thought you might be in need of a change of scenery, seeing as your own research seems to be going nowhere fast Edward.

Edward internally groaned at his officer's blatant hidden message that he'd been too distracted to realise at the time. It seemed that sending Ed on near-suicidal missions was his way of helping the teen. A lovely sentiment that would be returned in the form of an extremely illegible, handwritten report when he got back.

At last, after what felt like hours of walking in tense silence, Ed suddenly felt the rough surface of the wall dip harshly to give way to the smooth polished wood beneath his fingers. Bingo.

"This is it Al, keep watch out here. This should only take a minute to search if it's anything like the storage cupboards we found earlier. If I find anything I'll come get you. Or Yell. Depending on what I find." He whispered in the general direction of his brother.

"It's pitch black out here Ed! How can I keep watch if I can't see anything coming?" Alphonse responded nervously.

"You'll figure something out."

"Wait-"

But Ed had already slipped inside the room.

Once again, the only thing that Ed could see was black.

What the hell is up with these people and keeping all the lights off?

He was going through the motions of groping the wall in search of a light switch when his eyes began to adjust slightly and he noticed a weak blue light flickering at the far end of the room.

This glow provided just enough light to make out small shapes near the back of the vast room- a chair, a table with flasks and tubes piled haphazardly upon it, and what looked like a wide filing cabinet. It was rather nondescript and probably wasn't exactly what the Elrics were looking for (sketchy-looking floor plans, blueprints and weapon designs if Ed recalled correctly) but the cabinet was sure to contain something interesting and alchemy related at the least and Ed would need something to take back to Mustang after all. Also, he was curious. Perhaps there would be information about the Philosopher's Stone. After all, if these people were studying souls, it was likely that they would also be searching for the Stone.

Ed had taken no more than five steps into the room before he noticed the other shapes. He had been so focused upon the blue light that the three men who were crouched in the far corners of the room had gone entirely unseen. They wore dark, long robes with hoods that cast their entire faces in shadow, giving them the classic spooky cultist look.

There was no way they hadn't seen Ed but they remained still, as if they were waiting for something. This, paired with the shoddy cult clothes creeped him out slightly and Ed quickly transmuted his automail blade as a precaution. Not to be one to judge, but these guys didn't exactly look friendly.

"Hey," he cautiously made his way towards the man nearest to him. "I-"

A sudden flash of bright blue light dazzled him for a moment before he could get any closer All around him crackles of blue alchemical energy sparked and flew from the ground which he now realised in horror, had a transmutation circle drawn on it.

Idiot! How could I have missed that!

Dread pooled in his stomach and Ed made a mad dash towards the man in an attempt to get out of the circle, but the light was disorientating and blinding after the darkness before and he suddenly felt extremely heavy, as if gravity's force had decided to triple. Behind him, Ed heard the door burst open and he whipped his head round in time to see Alphonse barge into the room.

"Brother!"

All at once the force became too strong and Ed was dragged to his knees as the ground inside the circle began to disintegrate around him. He was both horrified and intrigued and couldn't help but watch in helpless terror as chunks of concrete began to break away from the floor and fall into a swirling black and blue mass beneath. That was until the floor directly beneath him began to crumble.

Ed could feel himself being sucked towards the swirling black hole but his efforts to move proved futile. Each time he found a stable piece of stone to grab, it crumbled to dust beneath his fingers. Panicked, he tried to think of something, anything that he could transmute to help him but his train of thought was cut short as his foot lost grip on the tiny ledge that was left inside the circle.

With that the rest of the ground beneath him broke away and joined the rest of the swirling debris, dragging a yelling Ed with it. The eldest Elric managed to snatch a final glimpse of his younger brother as he ran forwards, hand outstretched in a futile attempt to grab Ed before he was enveloped within the black cloud.

An all too familiar sensation of falling through nothing was accompanied by confusion. Was he being sent back to the Gate? Fear gripped him as he realised that he had no idea what that transmutation was for. It was different from the time he and Al had tried to bring their mother back as it was both the ground and himself that had been sucked inside. Nothing from outside the circle had been taken it seemed, Ed realised in relief. Al would be safe at least. Ed had no doubts that his little brother would be able to take down the alchemists with no trouble and soon after that, the extraction team which was waiting near the compound would storm the building and get him somewhere safe.

Now all Ed had to worry about was himself and the transmutation he had gate crashed. There would be a toll. No matter what those alchemists were trying to create, surely there would be a large toll to pay for coming into contact with the Gate again.

Ed could see the doors to his gate approaching quickly and frowned. Normally he seemed to just turn up in the white space where Truth resided. He had never approached it from this side before. His confusion only grew as he only seemed to speed up as he got closer to the slowly opening doors.

Black morphed into white for a split second as he sailed through the Gate. Truth was sitting on the floor, as always with a smirk on its face as it watched Ed tumble through the air above him.

"You'd better hold your breath Alchemist."

Ed had no time to respond as another Gate opened and once again he was falling through darkness. Except this time he knew he was definitely falling because below him, a city filled with lights and tangled roads was rapidly closing in.

Between the tall buildings a great murky river stretched for as far as he could see and Ed suddenly realised why Truth had told him to hold his breath. Even though the water would normally provide a better landing spot than the concrete either side of the river, with his automail limbs Ed would sink like a stone if the devastating impact didn't kill him first. Manoeuvring himself so that he would at least hit the water feet first was surprisingly difficult with his large red coat flapping around him like a seizing bat, but the physicist within him wouldn't let him just hit the water without taking some vaguely death preventative measures first. However slim Ed's chances of survival may be, he wasn't the kind to go out without a fight. Vaguely he noticed that his automail blade had retracted somewhere between his Gate and the new one and but that wasn't really at the forefront of his mind as his body collided with the frigid water.

/AN/

I've been wanting to write a FMA/Harry Potter crossover for ages so this is it i guess. I have a bit of a plot roughed out so if this receives some good feedback (and by that I mean literally just one follow or something because I'm going to write more regardless because this is fun) I'll post another chapter sometime soon. Reviews are always appreciated, even if they're just from someone nagging about a grammar or spelling mistake. :)

Also, this fic slightly rejects the 2003 anime because alchemy still works in "our" world. *gasp, spoilers* because yeah.

Alsooo, I have no idea what to call this so ignore the title- I literally just saw a bird fly past and was inspired. )

Edited 7/01/18 bc wowie my writing is shittttt why did I think this was acceptable to post ewewew