Previously: Ed, Al, and Kane find the next map so they are now on their way to China with Mei.

Boring Disclaimer: Do not own FMA, which sucks!

Chapter Ten: What Home Is

For the next three days a massive manhunt was ordered for Scourge. News of Mustang's first attempt to capture Scourge made its way through the military ranks. Through his origins are still unknown, the military were well aware of his skills. Patrols were beefed up and more heavily armed than usual. Needless to say, they weren't planning on having another disaster. The problem was that Scourge was constantly on the move. There were reports of sightings of Scourge, but were unconfirmed and by the time a squad got over there, he was long gone. There was no way to make another attempt at Scourge if he was moving around so much. All the military could do was wait for the right moment.

That was what got Mustang so frustrated: the waiting. He spent the past days in his office, conversing with his subordinates on just how to capture Scourge. They weren't getting anywhere; everything they thought of didn't seem to work. They didn't know what Scourge was after, and there seemed to be no pattern to his sporadic appearances. So even if Scourge stood still for even five minutes, there would be no plan to capture him yet.

The encouragement from Alex Armstrong wasn't helping much as he visited Mustang's office for tea. "You should relax a bit, Roy. Getting anxious isn't going to make Scourge show up."

"I'm not anxious, I want him to stop running, and I'm tired of waiting for him to show up." Mustang retorted as he sipped his tea.

"Careful, Roy, you're starting to sound like young Edward Elric."

Mustang smirked, "Oh, come on now, I have more patience than he ever had."

"Right now, I'm not sure. When we do fight Scourge again we have to be cautious, from what I've heard, you and Miss Hawkeye are lucky to be alive."

"You think I don't know that," Mustang growled, "You think I don't know that we barely survived by the skin of our teeth. Dammit, Alex, I know we got our asses kicked last time. It was…" Mustang's voice faded as he started to realize something. "Alex, you're right, I am starting to sound like Fullmetal, damn, that boy sure had an influence didn't he?"

Armstrong smiled, "Yes, he did, he had an influence on us all."

"Damn." Mustang got up and looked out at the window, "I wonder, if he was in my place, what would he do?" Mustang stood in thought, "Waiting and trying to find Scourge is like trying to find a fly and swat it, or going off hunting and trying to find your next trophy. Not like I ever gone…" an idea struck Mustang as he silently mouthed "…hunting."

Mustang rushed out of the office leaving Armstrong sitting there, wondering what Mustang was going to do.

Mustang strolled throughout Central HQ all the way towards Havoc's office, where Mustang hoped to find him. As luck would have it, Havoc was there, ruffling through papers trying to replace the men he lost.

"Havoc, I need to talk with you." Mustang said as he barged into his office, he didn't bother to knock.

"What's up, boss?" Havoc asked.

"Let me ask you a question, hypothetically, what if you were hunting, and you wanted to catch this animal, say, a rabbit, what do you do?"

Havoc sighed, "Sir, if you want to ask Hawkeye to marry you, all you have to do is ask!" Havoc was one of the few people that know about Mustang and Hawkeye.

Mustang face palms himself," NO, NO, NO, THIS ISN'T ABOUT HAWKEYE!" Mustang shouted.

"Oh," Havoc responded and then smirked, "You are going to marry her right?"

Mustang was about to lose all patience, "Colonel, can we please focus, this is about Scourge."

Havoc got serious all of a sudden; he wanted Scourge just as badly as Mustang, "What do you have?"

"Same question, you, hunting, catch a rabbit, what do you do?"

Havoc didn't know how to answer that question, let alone where Mustang was going with this. "I guess hunt it?"

"No," Mustang smirked, "set a trap."

"Oh, I see."

"We find an area far from civilians, we set a trap there, and when Scourge arrives, we spring the trap and we got him."

"I see, how do we catch him, we can't use a net, he can cut his way out with his knives."

"That's why I'm bringing Armstrong along, he'll be able to use his skills to trap Scourge, and if that doesn't work, he can always hold him down while we secure Scourge, Armstrong should be strong enough."

"Hmm, it might work but it's not guaranteed to work, what do we use for bait."

Mustang gave Havoc a mischievous little grin that told Havoc he wasn't going to like this part.

It was a long two weeks walk towards the border of China. According to the map they got from India, the final map that'll lead them to the doorway is located in the Northwest area of China, and Mei's home was in the southern area. It was decided two days ago that Al will escort Mei back to her home while Ed and Kane travel northwest to retrieve the map, and then they'll meet back near the border to Kazakhstan. Before Mei heads to her home with Al, she would serve as their interpreter since none of them understood Chinese. Ed said it wouldn't be a problem once she leaves because he and Kane wouldn't be interacting with the locals much; they would camp out at nights and would be travel during the days through the woods.

Mei was able to get them a room for the night at a hotel in a small town. It wasn't a big room, with only two beds, but it suited their needs.

"In the morning, we'll split up and head our separate ways." Ed said as they start to get settled. "Al, you remember where to meet up with us when you're done?"

"Yes, Brother, I remember." Al replied, getting out sleepwear for the night.

Kane got up from the bed and headed for the door, "Well, you guys take it easy; I'm going to grab a bite." Kane left the room leaving Al and Ed alone with Mei.

"So, just what is it you guys are looking for?" Mei asked.

"We're looking for a way to get Kane home." Ed answered.

"Where is his home?"

Ed runs his hand through the back of his head, he wasn't sure how to answer without revealing anything about their world, "It's…uh…it's complicated."

Al smiled, "Brother, let's tell her."

"Are you sure?"

"She's a nice girl, we can trust her."

Ed nodded, it wasn't that he didn't trust Mei; it was that he wasn't sure it was a good idea, and he didn't know if she believed them. "Now this is gonna be for you hard to believe."

"Hey, anything's possible, try me." Mei said with a determined smile.

Ed began to tell her everything, "You see, it's like this…"

Kane strolled downstairs to the dining area, hoping that what they have is decent. He had gotten some soup when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Dropping his soup, he grips his shirt as the cook walks towards Kane. The cook appeared to be complaining about the dropped soup, ignorant of the fact that Kane was in pain.

"Out of my way." Kane said, fighting the pain in his chest as he tried to run towards the bathroom. There were people in the way as Kane tried to fight through them. "I said OUT OF MY WAY!" Kane growled as he pushed a man away.

Kane makes to the bathroom and locks the door. Holding onto the sink, he tries to will away the pain. Apparently he dealt with this before.

"Bear with the pain, Kane." Kane said to himself. "Bear with it." Kane then looks at himself in the mirror. "Cause soon, you will feel no more pain."

"Wow, so you guys really are from another world." Mei said. At first, Ed and Al's story was a little hard to swallow, but she started to believe them. Ed even showed Mei his automail limbs as prove, so that helped their credibility. "So, why are you guys here? Shouldn't you be in your world?"

"We came looking for something, a bomb of unbelievable destructive power that uses an element called uranium." Al said.

Ed continued for Al, "A man named Hauskisson brought the bomb with him to this world, we spent the past two years looking him and that bomb. Then, a month ago, we finally found the bomb"

Mei listened with concentration, "So, what did you do with it?"

"We hid it in a safe place. Sorry Mei, but for your own safety, we can't tell you where it is."

Mei nodded, "I understand. So, what about the guy that had it?"

Ed's frowned, "We….never saw him again, he…he was executed."

"What! Why?" Mei asked.

Al had the same expression as Ed, "it's because he knew too much, they gotten all the information out of him. They didn't trust him, so they executed them. They…hanged him."

"No one deserves to be executed like that, no matter what he did." Ed said.

"Well, since this Hauskisson person told them about the bomb, aren't you worried that they'll make another one." Mei asked

"Not to worry, we were able to burn all the documents related to the bomb."

There was a moment of silence before Mei spoke, "You said you were helping that guy, Kane, get home."

"Yeah, we are, there's just the matter of finding it, If it even exists at all." Ed said.

"Does that mean you two can get home too?" Mei asked.

"I hope so; I do admit I missed home." Al said.

"I'm not sure I want to go back, sure I have friends I miss there," Winry comes to Ed's mind, "but, I want to make sure that both worlds are protected, free from harm. That's why once we find the doorway and Kane gets home, I'll destroy the doorway."

While Al expected this, Mei was shocked. "So, you're telling me that you not going home?"

Ed nodded, "Yeah, as long as my friends are safe there, I'm fine with staying."

Mei sighed and looked at Al, "Is he always this selfless?"

"Oh yeah, all the time." Al responded, and to Al, it gets annoying at times.

"What does it matter to you whether I get back to that world or not? This is my world now, my home." Ed said.

"Liar!" Mei said angrily. Ed was taken aback by the statement. "You may say that, but I don't believe you! Because I know how hard it is to be far from home! This isn't your home, never was, never will be!"

Al was surprised by Mei. She was saying so easily what Al always wanted to say but couldn't.

"Obviously, you don't understand what home is, so let me tell you what home is! Home is the greatest place in the world! Home is the one and only place where you feel that you belong! Home for me is back in my house near the ocean with a father and mother that loved me more than life itself! Home for you and Al is back at that town you called Resembool with that mechanic you seemed to love!" Ed's turned red. "Don't try to deny it, it's written all over your face! You have friends there that miss you, I bet! So, do yourself a favor, and stop being a selfless ass!"

Ed snapped, red with anger, he got up in Mei's face. "You want me to be Selfish?!? You really want me to be Selfish for once?!?" Mei nodded, and then Ed pulled down his right sleeves to reveal his metal arm. "Look, Mei! Look real close! This is what happened the last time I was selfish! I lost an arm and a leg, and Al was a suit of armor for nearly four years, Mei, FOUR FUCKING YEARS! I swore to myself since then never to be selfish again! So, don't talk to me about being Selfish, because you don't know a DAMN FUCKING THING!"

"BROTHER, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Al shouted, stopping this from getting any uglier than it already was.

At that moment, Kane walked through the door, "What's with all the shouting, they can hear you all the way down the hall." No one said a thing for a minute, a long agonizing minute of silence.

"I'm going to bed." Ed said flopping down on his bed, tired from the bickering.

Al then noticed something about Kane, "Hey, Kane, you all right? You look pale."

Kane wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I'm fine, just exhausted, let's get some sleep." Kane went to sleep.

Al walked over to Mei, who was visibly shaken by Ed's shouting; Al grabbed Mei's shoulders and drew her into a hug. Mei didn't protest against the hug, she just wanted someone to comfort her as she starts to sob and quietly said to Al, "Idiot, your brother's an idiot."

Al pats Mei's back softly as he responds, "I know, Mei, I know."

Riza Hawkeye walked into the office of Roy Mustang at ten in the morning, but was surprised to find he wasn't there. That was odd; usually he was in during this time. Hawkeye shrugged and thought he was in a meeting. After placing some papers on his desk, she proceeded to try to find Mustang. She then spotted a lieutenant that was on friendly terms with Hawkeye.

"Hey, Katie, do you know where General Mustang is, I can't find him?" Hawkeye asked.

Katie looked surprised, "Oh, he didn't tell you, did he?"

Hawkeye looked suspicious, "tell me what?"

The next two words out of Hawkeye's mouth could be heard throughout Central HQ: "HE WHAT?!?"

Mustang stood alone in the middle of an abandoned warehouse, in an area where civilians wouldn't be near, where there was no chance of casualties. Mustang looked smug as he holds his arms out and shouts: "Come on, Scourge, I'm waiting for you!"