The next few days were those of intense planning and careful calculation. Alphonse, Fletcher, and Kai had ventured back to the Tringham house to fetch everyone's suitcases at the order of Russell, who was feverishly working on at least four things at once. Naomi was still in too much pain to travel, so that left everyone else to do the work. Fletcher and Alphonse later had busied themselves by practicing in the man-made crater in front of the old, abandoned quarry, drawing faster and more furiously than ever before. Thousands of thoughts were running through Alphonse's head: Did Edward really know what he had done? Was he brainwashed, or upset? Would he turn out like his brother, a betrayer? What would he do when he saw his brother again? Alphonse drowned out his thoughts with alchemy – the crackling of raw energy suffocating the only senses he possessed. Fletcher was, on the other hand, a little eager for the practice. Though he was not keen on facing Alphonse, of all people, as he would surely lose, he had wanted to spar both physically and alchemically for some time now, to hone his skills. He also wanted to, most importantly, impress and maybe even surpass his brother in skill and technique. It was a personal competition, as he did not truly want to compete with his brother; he never could. But it was always a decent goal.

Russell was a man of action in these times. He had restored Naomi's automail to something more functional than it had been before, and in a time that would make even Pinako jealous. She had thanked him warmly and, to test the workmanship, clapped her hands and disappeared into the walls. Edward, she thought, as her mind and body travelled through the wall and into the night. I…I wish you could hear me right now. I had no idea. I didn't! I tried to make you like me years ago, but it never worked! You liked Winry. Oh, Winry, that fucking blonde slut. I don't know what you fucking saw in her. Edward, I'll fix this; I swear it.

Russell blinked as Naomi disappeared. He shook his head, knowing he ought to get used to her power, and sighed. His vulnerable state of observance lead him tumbling headlong into wistful thoughts of Rei, and how she must be in pain. Things had just been turning up again, and once again something had come between him and the woman he had grown to love. He silently vowed that they would have their moment, and it would be soon. He walked up the stairs, deep in thought, to pack his bags as the others had surely done.

Kai was more temperamental than ever. How dare Edward come between him and his chance with Naomi! He slammed his suitcase closed in anger, falling helplessly onto his back on the bed. And what was worse was that Naomi had barely shown him any attention since their ordeal in his room. And he had wanted so badly to taste her; to please her, to hear her moan has he had only a day or two before. He closed his eyes, biting his lip in anger, fighting the impulse to shout out an angry roar.

The problem child wasn't doing as well as he had been before. His instinctual thoughts were dying down now, and he wanted to see Naomi more than ever. He wanted to run his hands along her body; through her long endless locks of hair, along those tiny perky breasts, across her perfect frame and down to her jutting hips. And lower, to be inside of her, to breach what he hoped was still sacred and untouched, if Kai hadn't gotten to it first. He spat on the floor of their new hideout as he thought of Kai. Dirty little freak, he thought, a look of irrepressible anger crossing his face to which even Envy, who sat with him, found himself shivering from.

"Something on your mind?" he drawled, his violet eyes probing the golden hatred across from him.

"Nothing important." Edward spat back. Fuck you, his eyes screamed. I hate you for deceiving me. I hate you for pretending to be someone, for feeding me what I didn't end up needing. And most of all, I hate you for caring!

Envy, blissfully ignoring this stream of liquid fire flowing from Edwards's eyes, probed deeper still. "Worried about them? Your betraying, cold-hearted, lust filled 'allies'?"

Edward could feel the cold needles pierce his heart with how Envy had phrased his question. It did feel like Kai had betrayed him, but to lust was only human; he knew. He had let Envy into his body, to desecrate him as no one else had, and in the guise of a superior! His mind wandered to his research. He felt like a Spartan warrior; trained from birth by countless trials forced onto him to make him stronger, and now he was feeling homosexually for his superior; his mentor. Edward shook the thought. Roy Mustang was just that; a dirty, scheming superior who would almost certainly never have Edward that way. It had been a stupid fantasy, and he had given into Envy for it; betrayed Naomi for it, and now he had to fix his mistakes.

"Go away." he huffed, glaring profusely at Envy. "Just. Go. Away."

"Alright, alright! Calm down, shrimp, I'll give you some space." His eyes were amethyst jewels, glowing with mirth, but all he saw in them were Naomi's eyes, cold and unforgiving, as he had etched the symbol that had come to mean sinner onto her cheek as deep as he dared; the snake intertwined with the cross, wings and a crown floating above it, as on his teacher's collarbone and his brother's armor…and his coat.

Russell retreated upstairs, to what little of the library was left. He pulled out volume after volume – atlases, geographical reports, chemical breakdowns, even old journals – and continued his search for the ever elusive Red Water. He knew what to look for; he knew the effects of Red Water on humans very well. Better than most, he would venture, but not better than all… no, not better than Rei. The thought tormented him during the days of rest, the days of preparation when he slaved over details every minute, determined not to fail.

His thoughts were interrupted as the silent figure of Naomi came to join him. She sat across from him, watching his movements carefully, waiting for some signal to speak. He glanced over the last paragraph on the page briefly, and then looked up, inviting her to begin. She opened her mouth, unsure of how to start. Finally, she settled on a simple question. "When do we leave?"

Russ sighed, glancing over the numerous maps spread out on the table. "Whenever I find that bloody water. Soon. Maybe tonight." He regarded her features carefully, watched as uncertainty, indecision and worry crossed her eyes, no longer focussed on him, but instead on a corner of the table. His expression softened slightly, his rough tone smoothing over as he pushed aside his own determination for a moment. "Unless that's too soon…"

Naomi could see how much it pained him to wait. "No, no, don't worry about it." She stood, rather hastily. "I'll let you work." Her eyes remained fixed on one part of the map, on the vast expanse of yellow stretching across half of one map and off the table where the excess paper hung. She continued to scrutinize it blankly from certain angles, trying to read the word stretching across it, still obscured by Russell's fist on the table. She paused a minute by the edge of the table before departing, the image of the map burned into her brain.

Russell couldn't understand why she had lingered. He held his gaze downwards, scanning the books, the maps, everything on the table, maintaining his composure. He didn't want to yell at her to leave him alone. He really didn't. He let out a sigh of relief when she finally retreated, and resumed his feverish page-turning. Epidemic. Sickness. Death. The three main signs kept running through his head. It was enough to drive any man mad, and soon enough the frustration boiled over. He swept a hand over the tabletop in a deft movement, knocking the majority of papers and books aside. His hands slammed down on the table as he stood, leaning onto them, staring furiously down at the roughened wood below him. He was losing it.

Naomi heard Russell shove the books from his table, being just outside the door when he lost his temper. She had read I---al on the map; Ishbal. She was trying to figure out why that name seemed so important to her, but couldn't put a finger on it. She merged with the wall and ventured to Kai's room. From her place within the wall, she saw Kai changing, and watched him remove his shirt, his muscles flexing. What did she want? She sat inside the wall, and thought, making sure she wouldn't fall asleep. There were dangerous repercussions – namely death and dismemberment – if she fell asleep there. She thought hard. If she didn't do anything now, Kai would get over this and she could have Edward…if Ed was still alive. If she did something now, she risked Kai being mad at her for the rest of their relationship if she came onto him now and went for Edward once they rescued him. She watched as Kai took off his pants and tossed them on the floor with his shirt, throwing himself thoughtlessly on the bed in his boxers.

She hoped to god he didn't want to masturbate right now.

Alphonse ran to collect his helmet from the ground. "Nice shot Fletcher!" he exclaimed, walking back towards him while placing the helmet atop his head.

"Yeeishh," Fletcher shuddered. "I wish you wouldn't talk without your head on, it's still really weird."

Alphonse sighed. His body was a hollow shell, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Sorry Al…" Fletcher realised the weight of his comment and bit his lip. "Uh, can we head back now? I'm a little tired."

Alphonse truly wished that he could nod, because that's what he would have done. Instead, he actually had to speak. "Sure Fletch. Sure."

The pair of boys began walking back to the huge foreign mansion they were living in until they could set off for wherever Edward and Reichel were being held captive. Both boys found themselves staring at the stars. The vast expanse of sky and pinpricks of light left a sort of calm washing over both boys; a sense of peace and carefree wandering that they had not experienced since before their respective traumatic incidents. Fletcher let out a long sigh. This was the last time in a while he would be able to enjoy the night sky without worrying about attack. Suddenly, a streak of light shot through the sky.

"Fletcher, did you see that?" Alphonse gasped, his voice still cold and metallic, but full of wonder. "Make a wish, quick!"

I wish…I wish…

Fletcher screwed up his eyes in concentration. I wish… I wish that all of this could end soon, and that everyone will be okay. It was a silly thing to wish for, but he still hoped for it to come true.

Kai awoke with a start to a dull thudding at the foot of his bed. It was 3 o'clock, hardly the time for a wake-up call, rather, probably the latest any of them would dare to fall asleep, not knowing when they were setting out. He cracked an eye open with a sigh, swinging his legs around to sit up in bed. He shook his head, looking around for the source of the noise, but couldn't see anything clearly in the darkness of the night. Not even the thin strip of moonlight could illuminate whatever had made the noise.

He was about to lie back down to sleep when he heard the type of sound one could only hear in nightmares, and horror movies. From deep within the shadows, something drew a long, horribly rattling breath, and exhaled slowly. Kai jumped, snapping his head around to face the foot of his bed once more. He stood up cautiously, approaching carefully, waiting for a messenger of death to come biting at him from behind the bed post.

There was something hunched over, lying on the floor. Closer inspection revealed long tresses of hair, the glint of something metallic, and a small chest slowly rising and falling as Naomi slept peacefully on the hardwood. Kai breathed a sigh of relief and carefully bent over to pick her up. He slid his hands under her carefully, flesh meeting flesh first and then the cold of her automail. He could see that she was shivering, perhaps not from the cold, perhaps from some uncalled for nightmare haunting her much needed sleep.

There was resistance when he lifted her. Her hand wouldn't come up off the floor, weighed down by some unknown factor. He set her down gently, pulling something soft under her head, and went to get Russell.

"What the hell, Kai?" Russell grumbled. He'd fallen asleep at the table in the library, still poring over books. It had taken Kai at least twenty minutes just to find him, all the while worrying more and more about Naomi.

"I don't know what's wrong. Maybe you can make some sense of it." Kai seemed freaked out.

Russell swore silently, hoping this wasn't just some stupid nightmare.

He followed Kai to his room, stepping inside and looking around for something out of place. Kai directed his attention to Naomi where she lay, peacefully, sleeping at the foot of the bed. Russell blew out a long breath as he regarded her, or, more specifically her hand.

Where her hand should have been.

The automail seemed to still be attached, but the metal that made up the hand was secured firmly in the wall, probably crushed to bits inside it now. Unsalvageable. Even Russell couldn't make quick work of this patch job, she would need a specialist. The infamous Pinako or someone like her. And god damn the timing, too; Russell had only just begun to formulate a plan.

Without speaking a word, Russell dashed downstairs to the closet and pulled out a toolkit. He opened it as he was walking downstairs, selecting a small Phillips head screwdriver. When he returned, he ignored Kai's pestering and knelt down beside Naomi's frame, detaching as many of the screws as he could reach with the screwdriver in the dark at that particular angle. Needless to say, the complications came in the wiring. He couldn't just cut them, he knew that. Frantically, he searched for a solution.

He couldn't think of one. Hesitant to what he was about to do, Russell surveyed the red, blue, and green wires carefully before taking hold of one and pulling. From his experience (not that he had much) Naomi should have been screaming from some sort of spark at the shoulder, but nothing happened. He supposed it was okay as long as the wires didn't touch any of the metal. And good god, there was lots of it for those wires to touch.

He taped off the end of each copper strand carefully, and then taped them all together. He only hoped his makeshift mechanics would work out.

And that they would find a real mechanic on the way. Time was running out, and he couldn't say how quickly.