Chapter Seven

Where they find their temporary safe haven.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

As if it had not been enough trouble trying to slip Sara onto a train when she could hardly walk, Edward had no idea what the process was to cross borders. He was hoping it was something simple, especially since their train was heading straight to France. If there were any steps that had been overlooked, they would most likely be finding themselves in a mess of trouble once they arrived in the country. Passports and the sort had never been of much concern to him before.

The stations had very limited travel, especially with the state of Germany's economy. Sara insisted that they had nothing to fret over, that she could handle it if he was not so protective for two minutes. Edward let her slip away, amazed at how she could move so quickly through the crowds of people after being an invalid for so long. He watched from a distant bench as Sara spoke to the woman selling tickets, trying to convince her that they were leaving for France to check on his mother in the hospital. Reasoning did not go over smoothly, but she eventually was able to convince the woman to give her tickets onto the already full train.

"The Germans have grown suspicious of everything," thought Edward as he rose to his feet, waiting for Sara to make it back so they could board the train. "I suppose it is best we get away from that."

The two hurried onto the train with not even a moment to spare; the whistle declaring departure was shrieking as they climbed onto the back platform. Edward tried to find a compartment for them, hoping that if he kept her isolated, she would not pose a threat to anyone else's heath, but it was easier said than done. Even at midnight, most of the small rooms were full with sleeping families or overworked crowds of businessmen. Finally, they did find a compartment with only one occupied bench. A dark-haired mother with two sleeping children curled up on her lap kindly allowed them to sit across from her.

"You seem rather on-edge," the woman noted, addressing Edward. Sara was gazing out the window. "Would it be too rude of me to ask why?"

Edward shrugged, having no desire to make small talk with strangers at the moment.

Sara grinned, bringing her attention away from the endless night beyond the glass. "It is two days away from our wedding," she answered with a mischievous flare in her voice. "I think anyone in his situation has the right to be run-down and wary of things. It was a lot of planning to get here."

He glared at her, golden eyes flashing. Saraphine had a twisted sense of humor. Edward felt she was merely trying to lighten her own mood, thinking of happy things like marriage must take away from the fact they were being chased by insane Nazis.

"How lovely," the woman exclaimed quietly. "Congratulations to you both."

Sara looked up at Edward, batting her eyelashes with a sly smirk playing on her lips. She could see the irritation quickly smoothing over in his golden eyes. It was too much fun to change up their cover stories every now and again, she could not help it.

"Where will you be married?"

"On the steps of the Strasbourg Cathedral," she smiled. Sara was amazed that even though they changed their stories several times, the key details continued to play a part in each one; two days from now at the cathedral.

Sara and the woman continued on with their conversation. Edward merely listened as she continued to elaborate on every detail. She seemed so enthused to be facing the rest of her life, considering she knew she did not have that much left of it to look forward to. Maybe it was best if he just allowed her to keep daydreaming for a bit. When their conversation began to fade away, Edward was thankful for the quiet, even if Sara had taken to leaning on him as she fell asleep.

Edward felt uncomfortable under the woman's gaze upon him, mainly after Sara dozed off with her head resting on his shoulder. It was not the first time he had dealt with the girl using him for a pillow of sorts, but the woman was probably getting the wrong idea from it. He shifted towards the window, careful not to nudge Sara much.

"You're lucky," said the woman groggily. "It sounds like your lives cannot get any better at the moment. You are fortunate."

"Thank you," he dismissed politely. Edward was waiting for the silence to settle in the compartment, and hopefully the woman would understand his message. He had to bite back a groan when she continued to make another comment.

"With the talk in Germany right now, I doubt our lives are ever going to be relatively normal again," she sighed. This, for whatever reason, spiked his curiosity.

Edward raised his eyebrows. "Why?" he asked.

"Can't you tell?" asked the woman. "I'm Jewish. Apparently, that makes everything my fault to the bastards running the country."

Edward nodded, understanding. He, in truth, had not noticed anything that would set her apart from other German citizens. Why how you looked and what your religion was did not matter to Edward at all, he saw no reason for discrimination. But he supposed the matter had something to do with the politics he had no interest in learning about and allowed the topic to slip from his mind. It was eerie to him, though, that they were treating the Jews in this world the same way Ishvalans were treated in Amestris.

"Maybe there were more ties than Alphonse and I originally thought," Edward decided.

By the time the morning sun rose over the horizon, the train had pulled into the station at Strasbourg, the railings squealing as the brakes skidded over them. Edward had not been paying much attention to the city itself when they were passing through, so he would be surprised when he stepped outside. He gently tapped Sara's shoulder to wake her, and watching her fill with life again after hours of sleep was almost amazing. In seconds, her eyes had turned from a dreary color that resembled storm clouds to the blue that shown in the daylight sky. She was quick to rise, not wanting to waste any more time on the train than they already had.

Once they had escaped from the bustling crowds on the station's boarding platforms, Sara was taken back a step by the beauty of the city. She had been in Strasbourg once with her mother when she was young and clearly did not remember the elegance of the rivers and streams that flowed through or the old European style buildings that made her think of cottages in the woods. She looked to Edward; it was obvious he did not have an interest in artistic things like architecture. He could have cared less.

"Where exactly do you suggest that we stay?" he asked in a monotonous tone. "Because you can't exactly stay anywhere with other people, you are still infected."

"Tell me something I don't know," Sara grumbled. She was sick and tired of hearing him tell her that she was still suffering. She knew that, she felt it and lived it every day. But he somehow felt the need to remind her when he thought she had forgotten. "I suppose there is somewhere we can stay that isn't just a hotel room. A fluffy bed and breakfast is obviously not what you are looking for."

They wandered around the city for what seemed like hours, following the sidewalks towards the heart of the city and to the outskirts. As the sun rose high into the sky, rays of heat beating down onto Sara's face and shoulders, they had stuck to meandering along the outer city streets. Edward came upon a small cottage that sat at the banks of a wide, shallow river. It had not been the first they had seen, but after learning it was abandoned, he welcomed them to make themselves at home.

Sara crept through the doorway, scrunching her nose up. Edward tore the weak plywood boards away from the windows, sending the dust that had collected upon the surfaces swirling in the air. She watched the particles swim in the light pouring in through the windows, which was revealing the covered furniture and dingy walls.

"That was just a lovely story you told the woman on the train," remarked Edward, tossing their shared suitcase that had been thrown together at the last minute onto an armchair, sending more dust into the air. "It must have been your fever talking, because that idea was beyond insane."

"Thank you!" Sara exclaimed, bowing dramatically. When she stood upright again, her vision was cloudy and her head was reeling. It took a moment before her mind had stopped spinning. "I would not want to marry you, anyways, so I don't know what you are losing your cool over."

She sniffed, advancing further into the house. Floorboards creaked under her feet, more so than they did in the manor in Germany. Her mind, for whatever reason, trailed back to Kerstin. The blonde was probably sitting at home, watching Sven make phone calls to dozens of people to search for Sara. She groaned, struck with guilt.

"We have time to kill before Alphonse will be arriving at the cathedral," she mused absently, trying to bring the subject away from Edward's frustration with her. "What do you suppose we do?"

"You are going to rest," Edward insisted. "Lay down or something, I will unpack the painkillers for you."

Sara made a face at her options of places to rest. Of the shabby armchairs and dilapidated sofas, nothing particularly caught her interest. She leaned against a wall, taking the moment to close her eyes. She knew that she was being difficult for him, but she thought standing was a better option than on a disgusting, broken down piece of furniture.

"I don't want to," she protested quietly, her voice hissing up her throat. Edward shot a sharp glare at her. Sara returned the dirty look with ease.

"I didn't ask what you wanted," he reminded crisply. "It is what you need if you plan to stay alive long enough to open the Gate, let alone cross through it."

"That's all you care about, isn't it?" Sara snapped at him, her beryl eyes flashing.

He raised his eyebrows curiously. "What do you have that is better to worry about?" Edward returned.

Sara bit down on her lip. Of course, there were the Nazis and the Thule Society that planned to invade his world with her knowledge, and she assumed she would be safe from them for a few years at least if she was living on the other side of the Gate. She supposed he was right, they were better off if they focused on that as their main priority. Sara grumbled something in audible.

"Exactly," he said, unlatching the clasps on the suitcase. Throwing the lid back, Edward reached in, rummaging through the clothes and medicine cases until he found what he was looking for.

Sara turned, pressed her back against the wall, and sank to sit on the floor. She realized now how empty she felt, how there had to be something absent inside of her. "It's because I will be gone before I can help him," Sara thought, assuring herself, "that's why I am so miserable." Death itself was not scaring her as much as the thought of leaving everyone she knew behind her. She wondered how the other scientists experimenting at the university with her could have faced the sad truth with such straight faces – her mother included.

Six months ago, winter had swallowed France whole, making it difficult for Sara to conduct her research properly. The lab she and her mother had been experimenting in was run-down and filled with about twenty others trying to discover the same thing. She only meant to recreate the work of Marie Curie; she was writing her freshman thesis paper on the genius's discoveries. Sara found that, for the most part, things were turning out well. She was successfully observing identical results; the natural ore, pitchblende, did emit a radioactive substance one-hundred fold times more dangerous than uranium and thorium and that same element could be used to create energy seemingly from nothing. However, there were more factors Sara had left the same that should have been adjusted to the conditions in which she had been experimenting. The cold was one of them.

Weak window panes and thin walls of the old laboratory allowed crisp winter winds to slip into the building, affecting more than just the scientists' body temperatures. The first one of them to notice anything changing in his research was a man named Isaac, who watched the finished project of his research nearly freeze over. He could not continue to work with the elements anymore. Isaac was also the first to see the burns appearing on his skin from long-term radiation exposure. One by one, those researching in the building began noticing the same burns and the same failure in their experiments. Sara thought her work was too precious and made a conscious effort to save it before the chill seeped through it, ruining it forever. She had been in such a rush that night to finish, she barely remembered what she changed. Whatever she had done, though, it changed several of the elements completely. After repeating the process several times, Sara had successfully opened the Gate.

Not long afterwards, the laboratory had been transformed into a hospital wing for the infected scientists. They quarantined themselves in the contaminated building, unable to face families and loved ones. Sara was amazed that she had not contacted the burns and blisters yet, but thought it would be best if she avoided anything that would speed up her death. Her mother was one of the last ones to die, and after that she could not bear to stick around and watch the few remaining pass away as well. She had all of the formulas she needed to recreate her research if necessary; she was desperate to leave the country with them.

Word had spread quickly about the research and experiments happening in the small lab on the university campus. There were articles in newspapers all across Europe that talked about it, especially after the mass death of the minds behind it. On the day of her mother's funeral, Sara was visited by a German man at her mother's home. He claimed to be a scientist interested in her work, asking if he could have enough starting information to recreate her experiment in his home country. She found him horribly suspicious and did not tell him a word. In fact, she had been quite rude and slammed the door in his face. It was only later that she realized he was from the Thule Society.

In desperation, Sara decided to go into hiding. She thought it clever to travel to the one place the Thule Society would never expect her to go, to Germany. She searched through her mother's things, packed a suitcase, and found her father's address in Munich. Sara wrote to him, saying she could not stand to live in the same house where her mother had been and that she would like to attend classes at Munich University when the next semester rolled around. The week leading up to the reply letter from Sven was a nerve-wrecking one, but Sara suffered through. Then, the day before she left, she burned all research journals that remained in the old lab. All was well in Germany, too, until the radiation burns flared up on her skin.

"Saraphine," Edward snapped. His flesh hand was extended towards her face, two small pills cradled in his palm.

She had half of a mind to smack his hand away from her face; she was too deep in thought to care much about taking medicine. Instead, Sara took the pills and dropped them to the back of her mouth, gulping them down quickly. She felt a large lump swelling in her throat, a result of taking the pills without any water.

"Why do you want to go to the other side?" he asked, striking up a conversation.

"I will save you the dramatics of simply saying I would like to see it after all of my research, I did not know what the hell I was doing to arrive at that result," Sara announced throatily. "I think, if I make it there, the knowledge of my research will be safe from the Thule Society. It will take them years to gather the tools and research to open the Gate themselves, if they choose to at all."

"You are doing this to be noble," Edward observed, speaking rather judgmentally.

Sara protested, "I suppose. But I don't mean to."

Despite the heat of the French summer, the night that slowly crept over the cottage was cold and windy. Sara swallowed her pride and curled up on the sofa, using the cover that kept the dust from soiling it as a blanket. Edward remained awake for a good portion of the night, and even when he did sleep, it did not last very long. He was too preoccupied by the thought of Alphonse not making it to the cathedral tomorrow.

In the morning, they woke to empty stomachs and no food to fill them. Edward wandered aimlessly through the cottage, grumbling to himself about how hungry he was and how if the German currency would not do a thing for them in Germany, it certainly would be worth anything in France.

"Will you stop complaining, Edward?" demanded Sara. "We do have means of buying food, need I remind you."

His head shot up to look at her. "What are you talking about?" asked Edward.

"It isn't like my mother and I were broke after our experiments," she remarked, giving him an all-knowing look. "I am sure there has to be some money remaining in our bank account."

"Good, that way we have something to do before we meet up with Alphonse," he said, looking more enthusiastic than Sara had seen him in days. His brother meant very much to him, she knew that. Somewhere inside of her, she wished she had a sibling growing up, she always had. But Sara had taken advantage of the time she had with Kerstin, when she had obtained what she had wanted.

Sara grinned. "I got to return home and you are treating me to brunch? Oh, Edward, you are too kind."

"You have a horrid sense of humor," Edward told her sternly. Now that Sara was feeling slightly better with the passing days, her true colors were shining through. She may still be as stubborn as ever when it came down to it, but she tried to lighten the mood otherwise. "Or is it simply a French trait of yours?"

"Racist," she muttered sourly, lowering her head. "My sense of humor has nothing to do with being French." Sara ducked out of the room towards one of the unused bathrooms tucked away in the back of the house, bringing a change of clothes with her. After locking herself in the small room, she swapped out of the nightgown she had been traveling in and changed into a heavy pair of slacks with a long-sleeve blouse. Having forgotten a comb back at the manor, Sara could only run her slim fingers through her knotted brunette hair. She fluffed the bangs over her face as best she could before tying her should-length locks into a bun at the top of her head. She emerged appearing clean, but without running water it was difficult to pull off otherwise.

Edward had to do a double take, not realizing it was Sara the first time he stole a glance at her. It had taken him all of a minute to throw on a clean pair of pants and matching dress shirt, so he had been waiting for several minutes for her. He believed that it was the first time he had seen her dressed in everyday attire. "Feminine," approved Edward.

Sara sniffed. "Thank you," she returned, simply for the sake of being polite.

Not that Edward normally noticed clothing – especially on women – but he did observe that the neutral color she was dressed made her blue eyes flare. Tones of ice and sky swirled together in her irises, bringing more emphasis to her wide eyes. Her beryl eyes were flashing as she looked at him.

She waited, standing in the awkward silence, with frown tugging at her lips. In truth, Edward made her fairly uneasy. Sara tapped her foot impatiently, looking towards the door every now and again in hope that he would indicate their departure soon. She did not think she could take him seriously if their stare-down continued any longer.

"Alphonse will be worried if you wait any longer," she huffed. Sara had talked to the younger Elric brother all of twice, and she hoped she had made a decent assumption about his personality.

"I might die of starvation if we wait any longer," retorted Edward. He shuffled across the dusty floor with a sigh, before stepping out into the warm sunlight of the late morning. Sara followed him, watching as his heels kicked up tiny puffs of sand as he walked along the dirt path. She learned that he was able to hide the limp he was walking with well, since she had never noticed it before. His left foot quivered each time he pressed it against the ground, nearly giving out with each stride.

"What is wrong with your leg?" asked Sara curiously.

He grunted, "My automail is breaking down. I need to go in for maintenance." Edward glanced over his broad shoulder at her, his golden eyes bright. "Only one more reason to open the Gate sooner."

"I already agreed to help you," she reminded him, "so you don't have to keep throwing reasons in my face to speed up the process."

"Maybe I should just leave you on this side," considered Edward aloud. "It would mean a lot less trouble for the both of us. Besides, I don't need one more female in my life nagging at me all of the time.

Sara pressed a scarred hand over her mouth, muffling the chuckle that slipped through her lips. "You are quite the ladies' man, aren't you, Edward?"

"You have not met the women I have had to deal with," he remarked vehemently. Edward thought of Teacher, Hawkeye, and Winry, all of who could easily kick his ass. There were, of course, the ones who were not as strong, like Noa and Rose, but equally as much trouble. On top of it all, he had not inherited his father's talent with women so he had no hope for him at all. But what did he care? He was a traveler, never planning to settle down and entirely alchemy driven, he was better off that way.

"You're right, I haven't," she agreed.

He uttered some sound of acknowledgement, but did not make any further comment. Edward just continued walking until they reached the city, his excitement growing when he saw the top of the cathedral peaking over the other buildings and houses. He was not hungry anymore when he thought of reuniting with Alphonse, even if he was nearly an adult now, Edward still worried about Al like he was a little kid. A clock was nailed to a post sitting on one of the street corners; it was only ten o'clock. Edward groaned, but was soon reminded of the growls emitting from his stomach.

Just as Edward was about to walk into one of the small cafés lining the main street, Sara pulled him aside, reminding him he had no money to spend on food. She did not particularly like having to scold him and read him the rights, especially since she barely knew him. Either way, whatever she told him convinced him to wait off and follow her to the bank.

Having visited the city only once, Sara lost her way along the narrow streets searching for the bank. Most banks in France were not connected by a group or company yet, so she was lucky to find one that did and also held her mother's account. She and Edward were waiting in a line for over a half-hour before they stepped up to the teller's counter.

Edward merely stood to the side and listened as Sara recited account numbers to the man behind the counter, making confused faces each time she stumbled across a number she was unsure of. Her insecurity of the matter made him worry that she would not be able to withdraw any money at all, then the three of them would not be able to eat, let alone continue traveling away from Germany. Finally, the teller approved the account number and allowed Sara to take the entire amount of money that had been kept in the account. In total, the trip to the bank chewed up more than an hour of their time.

They returned quietly to the café in which Edward had first seen this morning, a small shop with only a counter to sit at and eat. It was relatively empty when they sat down, but people soon began arriving for lunch as the top of the hour neared closer. Even as he was scarfing down food, Edward feared that they would be making Alphonse wait.

"It helps if you chew your food before you swallow," chastised Sara, as she made a face of disgust from watching Edward eat. French food was not exactly healthy, and eating as much of it as he was, she knew that Edward would be paying for it with stomach aches later.

Gulping down a bite of…whatever had been shoved inside of his mouth, Edward said, "What? Are you worried about me choking?"

"He sure is moody today," Sara observed, "probably because he is separated from his brother." She rested her chin in her palm, looking at him. "Why yes, Edward, I am," she said. "I think it is my turn to start worrying about you for once, instead of the other way around."

"You are not entirely healed of anything," he pointed out, setting his fork on the rim of his plate. He slid the plate towards the center of the counter, signaling that he was finished. "You don't have the right to worry about anyone but yourself. While we are here, we should buy you bandages to cover your burns."

"I know," she sighed. "But that can wait until after we meet up with Alphonse again."

"Agreed," said Edward. He pushed back on the counter stool and rose to his feet, turning away from the counter. Just as he cut through the line to the door, bells in the cathedral echoed through the town, announcing high noon. Sara glanced at one of the waitresses behind the counter; she was speaking with another customer. If she waited, she would lose Edward. Sara tossed several bills to the center of the counter, an amount plenty more than what the bill probably was.

Sara dashed out of the café, her own stomach still grumbling with hunger, and raced after Edward. For a man limping down the street, he had already made it two blocks by simply walking. Edward's impulsiveness was almost as bad as his temper.

The gothic style church towered over them, blocking the sun from pouring down on the pathway leading to its front steps. Edward was already talking with his younger brother on the steps of the cathedral when Sara met up with them. The two brothers were receiving dirty looks from passerby on the street when they heard them speaking German.

"How are we going to pull off something this big, Brother?" asked Alphonse desperately. "It was hard enough to get out of the country yesterday and by now the Nazis are in every train station."

"There is no way that they are all looking for us!" exclaimed Sara.

"Don't flatter yourself," Edward muttered. "Not all of them are looking for you, Saraphine. It was only a matter of time before the Nazis gained control of the whole country."

Alphonse shot his brother an unreadable look. "True, of course. But Sven, I heard him on the phone; he is sending troops across the border of all bordering countries – Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and France. There were no trains leaving to the other countries. Their orders are to search for the three of us."

Sara glared at Edward, unsure of what else she could do. "What do you suppose we do now?"

"What do you need to open the Gate?" asked Edward.

She thought back to her experiments, making a mental list of the ingredients she had been using. "Radium, polonium, thorium, uranium," she listed. "But I have no idea what I did with them in the end." Edward nodded, soaking in the rest of the excuse she was giving him.

"Why don't you transmute something yourself, Brother?" asked Alphonse curiously, cocking his head to the side. Sara listened intently, knowing the term from a briefing on the ancient science of alchemy.

"There is a lack in this world," answered the older, golden haired brother. "The transmutation would not be complete without something holding it together. Envy held the transmutation together the last time the Gate was opened in this world. We need the chemicals and the amounts of them that Sara used when she opened the Gate."

"Then we have to go back to Paris," announced Sara. "Any research that has not been burned still sits in the lab."

WOW! Over 5000 words and 13 pages; I think that is a record for me! I have wanted to make my chapters longer on an average, but was not expecting this. I just wanted them to meet up with Alphonse. Please review, I don't want to feel like I wrote all of this or nothing.