-fire everywhere, citizens screaming and running uselessly from the onslaught of destruction-
Stork's body twitched, sweat broke out on his forehead and he rolled onto his side.
-running as fast as he could to the edge of the terra as buildings were annihilated around him, the reassuring weight of the glider on his back and a small hand gripped tightly within his own-
He struggled to breathe, as though he were choking on smoke and trying and failing to find oxygen.
-reaching the cliff, looking down and seeing nothing but thick clouds of heavy smog-
"No…" he whispered. "No, don't…"
"-we haven't even tested it yet!"
"Storky, help! Storky, I'm scared!"
"It's okay, Ming. Just hold on tight, okay-?"
Without even recognising his actions, he pulled his blanket tighter around his body.
"-Heron, hop on my back! It's the only place there's room. You'll be on top of the glider-"
"No…" Stork muttered again. "Stop!"
"-Hey! What're you waiting for? Come on! If we stay here any longer, we're doomed!"
"And if we jump, we're just as doomed!"
"Heron, this isn't the time to-"
"Look at that thing, Stork! There's no way it'll carry all three of us! Maybe it could take you and Ming, but…"
He rolled onto his back again, still twitching and shuddering as the images flashed through his mind.
"-Heron, come on, say something. Or just get on, we need to go!"
"…take care of Ming."
"Heron!"
"Heron, NO-!"
And with that final echoing scream from his own preadolescent voice, Stork jerked awake and sat bolt upright, and tried desperately to catch his breath.
He wasn't on Terra Merbia and he wasn't diving over a cliff. He wasn't even in Atmos anymore. He was…
He didn't even know where he was.
Briggs. That was what that General woman had called it, wasn't it? But where was this Briggs place? Was it a fortress or a ship or just a prison? He would be completely prepared to believe it was a prison.
Another word he had heard floating around was 'north'. Yeah, it was pretty obvious he was north of somewhere, given how the weather still wasn't any warmer. Considering the faint sounds of howling wind, it was definitely very far north. He shivered and wrapped as much of the blanket around his body as possible, until he resembled a Merb cocoon.
Why now?
Why now, of all times, would those memories come back to haunt him?
Then again, why not? After all, the circumstances were similar: he was separated from his family with potentially no way of ever seeing them again and nothing to do about it.
He looked up at the bars, those thick and frigid metal poles preventing him from escaping and trying to figure out what was going on, and sighed.
Had the General really believed him? When he said he knew Edward Elric the previous night, had she thought he was lying? Was she secretly planning his execution?
He shivered again as the cold bit at his ears.
Considering where he was, an execution would be rather unnecessary.
Alphonse knocked on the door.
"Hello?" he called. "Colonel Mustang? I'm here!"
The door opened and the Colonel smiled faintly at him.
"I'm glad you could make it, Alphonse," he said as the tall boy entered. "You'll be happy to know we've apprehended someone who knows where your brother is."
"You what?!" Alphonse almost shouted in shock. "Who is it? Where's Edward? Has he told you yet?"
"He's right over there," said Mustang, and pointed at a chair that was facing out the office's window that had a high enough back to hide its occupant. "He refused to speak to anybody but you. Asked for you personally."
'Is it someone we've met before?' Alphonse wondered.
"I'll leave you two to get better acquainted," said Mustang, and he closed the door behind him as he left.
Nervous, Alphonse approached the chair, and stopped when he was only a couple of metres away.
"Excuse me," he said, "but you asked for me, didn't you? I'm Alphonse Elric; my big brother Edward's gone missing and the Colonel said you know where he is."
The chair's occupant didn't reply.
"So, um," Alphonse said, "can you please tell me where he is?"
Still there was no response.
"Please?" He could see somebody reflected in the window, but not clearly enough to see who they were. "You can hear me, can't you? It's just that my brother's the only family I have left and..."
The person in the chair still refused to speak.
"Please, I'm desperate!"
Alphonse fell to his knees.
"I can't take this anymore," he said, and would probably have been crying had his body allowed him. "I would even be happy to know he was dead, because at least it would be confirmed! It's so awful not knowing what happened to him, where he went... if somebody kidnapped him or he just defected or..."
He raised his head to face the chair.
"I need to know!" he cried. "He's all I have left in this whole world! Please help me find my brother!"
"There's no need to get so worked up about it," the chair's occupant said as he got to his feet.
Alphonse stared in shock at the sound of his voice.
Could it be...?
"You may discover," the person said as they came into view, "he's a lot closer than you think he is."
It was.
"BROTHER!"
"Alphonse!"
The two brothers ran to each other and Alphonse swept Edward up into his arms, and the elder alchemist was more than happy to return the embrace.
"Brother," Alphonse said, and he would definitely have been crying by now if he could. "Brother... you're okay... I... I thought I'd lost you, Brother... oh, thank God..."
"Yeah," Edward said. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's okay, I'm back now. It's gonna be okay."
Al awoke with a small gasp of shock.
Yes. He was breathing. He possessed lungs with which to breathe. He had a body and he had to remember that.
He liked that memory. It was one of his favourites from the past year or so. But at the same time, he didn't like having to return to that state. To just being a soul bound to a hunk of metal, without a heart or a stomach or lungs or even eyes.
He didn't want to just be someone who existed. He wanted to live.
He pressed himself into a sitting position, the sheets sliding off his body as he moved, and looked around his room with his vision still half-fuzzy from sleep. He lifted aside the drapes that covered the window next to his bed and looked out at the moonlit countryside.
The rain had stopped, and the clouds were dissipating to reveal the stars. It was a beautiful sight even without the trees and fields shimmering in their wetness.
He'd missed this peaceful sight.
At the sound of a sigh not far away, he looked to his other side and saw Finn lying on his back, splayed out on his bedroll and obviously deep in slumber.
Al couldn't help but feel envious. How was it even possible for him to be almost as lost as it's possible for a person to get yet able to sleep like a log?
He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he was still breathing and still alive, and settled down to go back to sleep.
"Hey, Ed? Are you still awake?"
Ed opened his eyes.
"Yeah," he said. "Feels like I got too much energy. You?"
"Can't sleep either," said Aerrow, "but I don't think it's the same reason."
"Huh?" Ed rolled onto his back. "What's wrong?"
Aerrow searched for a way to phrase his thoughts that didn't sound strange.
"When you spend long enough living on a carrier ship, you get used to some things," he said. "Usually when I'm trying to get to sleep I can hear the engines somewhere in the background. I guess that's why I was able to sleep on the train last night because right now…"
"…it's too quiet."
"Yeah."
"I know how you feel," said Ed. "Took me weeks to get used to sleeping without trains rumbling or cars going past or people constantly wandering up and down the corridor outside. It's so peaceful out here. Truth be told, I kinda like this better."
Aerrow didn't reply immediately.
He didn't quite understand it. He had possessed an innate ability to sleep absolutely anywhere for as long as he could remember. He had done just fine on his first night on the Condor, and on the night he and Ed were stranded on a gutted, empty terra, and even being locked in a prison cell hadn't done anything to prevent him from getting a good night's sleep.
Admittedly the spider had been a bit of a hindrance, but it hadn't been dangerous (thankfully).
So how could he be having so much trouble getting to sleep now?
"You think maybe being trapped in Amestris would have something to do with it?" asked Ed.
Aerrow muttered, "Maybe."
"Or perhaps it's the separation," Ed suggested. "I'm betting that last night you were so relieved to have found me that you didn't really think a whole lot about your friends, but now the fact that you know where some of them are and are still missing others is troubling you. Am I right?"
"Well, there is that," Aerrow agreed. "Even when I was on that burnt out terra with you or that one time I went to prison-"
"Hang on, what?!"
"Long story. Even then, I knew where my whole squadron was. They were on the Condor, and they knew where I was too. I mean, they didn't when… you know what I'm saying?"
"Yeah, I get it," said Ed. "I know how you feel. Even if someone you're close to isn't with you, it's comforting to know where they are. When Al and I were out on our hunt for the Philosopher's Stone, the knowledge that Winry and Granny were still here waiting for us was a part of what kept us going."
Aerrow nodded in understanding as Ed rolled onto his other side, facing him.
"Not much I can do to help you right now, I'm afraid," he said. "I mean, I'd like to go out and start searching, but where would we even start? It took us a little under 18 hours just to get to Resembool from Central, and that was in a train that probably travels about the same as your carrier's normal speed. How far can you guys get in 18 hours if you didn't use any kind of afterburner or whatever?"
His question was met with silence.
"And bear in mind that train tracks tend to twist and turn depending on the land layout," he added, "whereas you guys can easily fly in a straight line."
"We could…" Aerrow said slowly. "We could probably get at least a quarter of the way across the charted Atmos if we were lucky. If we didn't run into storms or Cyclonians or sky sharks or Stork didn't see a spot on the windscreen. When you put it that way, it…"
"…makes Amestris sound huge, doesn't it?" asked Ed. "Makes it sound like they could be absolutely anywhere. Just be glad we're not in Drachma: that place makes this country look like just a coffee stain on the map."
Aerrow wasn't exactly sure what he could say in response to this.
"I know it's tough," said Ed, and he rolled back onto his other side, "but just try to get some sleep, alright? Try counting sheep or whatever it is you have in Atmos. At least one of us should try to get some rest tonight."
With a frustrated frown, Aerrow looked up at the ceiling. The knot of his ponytail pressed into the back of his head and he pulled out the dark red ribbon that bound it and his long scarlet locks splayed out over his pillow as he rolled onto his side and curled up.
He knew he was in the presence of friends and that he was perfectly safe. In fact, considering just how close he was to solid ground, he was probably far safer than he would have been if he was back at home in Atmos.
So how was it possible for him to still feel so lost?
It wasn't just the boys in the house that were feeling restless.
Winry stared up at her blank ceiling, head rested on her hands and brows furrowed in thought, as the mechanical gears within her head were grinding without cease.
She didn't know what it could be, but something about that boy's arm was just really bugging her. Was it the fact that it had been made out of recycled steel? No, it couldn't be. She did it all the time.
But where had what had been used come from? Judging by his clothes, which were in a similar state to what Finn's had been when she thought about it, they didn't have a lot of money with which they could buy good quality metal. They probably wouldn't have the proper resources for getting rid of impurities and testing whether or not it was strong and durable. Plus there was the fact that he'd engraved all those lines in it, no doubt threatening the structural integrity.
And where had they got the wires and gears from that powered the thing and made it moveable? What did they use for lubricant? Well, if they really did ride around on flying motor-powered bicycles, they'd probably have plenty of oil to spare…
Oh, the mere thought of such a machine was like something out of a dream. Winry couldn't even imagine the kind of complex mechanisms that would be needed for the wings to be withdrawn in such a way that they didn't affect the engine, not to mention how they would be adjusted to supposedly draw power from magical crystals or how the fuel output worked with that. She would have loved to just get one of those and take it apart to see how it worked, so long as she would be able to put it back together again.
And apparently there were machines large enough to carry those, large enough for a group of people to live inas though they were houses… it made her shiver with glee.
Her love was still automail, it was true, but these foreign methods of engineering just sounded fascinating.
But if they were mainly used to building vehicles and weapons, how would that translate into the construction of artificial limbs?
Probably not very well. Things like cars and trains could get away with re-used materials, but they didn't do much besides travel around and a limb was made for everything. And if it hadn't been made from the best quality metal in the first place…
She sat up and swung her legs out of the bed and, taking care not to disturb the sleeping Piper who lay on a bedroll nearby, she changed into her work clothes.
Winry Rockbell had a new project.
"GAAAAAH!"
Ed sprang up as the scream burned his throat and his nails dug into his bedsheets hard enough to tear them. Once that was done, he panted heavily, sweat dripping off his forehead and eyes wide with terror.
"Ed?" Aerrow said sleepily as he blinked the world into view. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
Still trying to catch his breath, Ed gulped and sighed.
"I'd like to say it was a nightmare," he said, "but saying that implies that the things I just saw and heard are things that didn't happen."
"So… that was an old memory?" asked Aerrow, who was still only half awake. "I'm guessing it wasn't a very good one."
"Oh, it was a memory alright," Ed replied, "but I wouldn't exactly say it was old."
This comment sobered the Sky Knight somewhat.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Ed, what exactly happened between you coming back here and us meeting again? Are you ever going to tell me?"
"What about you?" asked Ed, and glared down the redhead. "Back when we first met, you were pretty enthusiastic about sharing your squadron's adventures, but you haven't told me anything about what happened to you in the past year. Any particular reason for that?"
Aerrow fell silent. He couldn't really argue very much with that.
Then again, if Ed ever found out…
The apparent ex-alchemist looked out the window.
"Looks like there wouldn't be much point in trying to go back to sleep right now," he said, and Aerrow noticed the sunbeams streaming down onto the floor for the first time. "Might as well get up, don't you think?"
Aerrow rubbed his eyes and yawned.
"I'll take that as a 'five more minutes'," said Ed, and he got up out of bed and walked over to his wardrobe in his vest and boxers, his footsteps an interesting rhythm of thumping and clunking.
"Looks like you didn't get everything back," the Sky Knight commented at the sight of the blond's automail leg.
"Yeah, I'm not all that bothered about my leg," Ed said as he started pulling on a pair of pants. "It's the arm that was really important, and even then I only got it back because it was an emergency."
As he buckled up a belt, Aerrow looked to the boy's right shoulder, and tried hard not to gasp in shock when he saw a hideous deep-red scar that presumably ran in a ring around Ed's arm. He swore he could even see a small nub of metal sticking out of his skin. God only knew how painful it was, and the Sky Knight found himself relieved when it was finally hidden behind a shirt.
"That's kind of a long story," finished its owner.
"Why do you keep saying that?" asked Aerrow.
"Because it is, obviously!" said Ed. "It'd probably take days to get out every last detail and even then you probably wouldn't believe all of it. Just don't worry about it for now, alright? If we manage to find the rest of your team, we'll tell you. It'll be easier if we're all together."
He tied his hair into a ponytail with a short length of string and walked over to the door.
"You coming to get some breakfast or what?"
Sensing that this conversation wasn't going to get him anywhere, Aerrow pressed himself up off the bedroll and snatched up his ribbon before he stood.
"Of course," he said as he restrained his own hair. "You don't have to get all angsty about it, jeez."
He walked through the door as Ed held it open, and tried to hide the look of worry on his face as they headed towards the stairs.
He did not like how the blond had eyed his shoulder just now.
"…and then when we came out, they were all pointed arrows and stuff in our faces. And we didn't know what was going on, we'd just crashed there! But then one of them just pointed at me and he got this really just, like, shocked look on his face and he just said… uh…"
"What?" asked Al excitedly. "What did he say?!"
"Uh…" Finn said awkwardly. "I kinda forgot exactly what he said, I just know he called me 'the Domo' and then everybody bowed to me!"
Rather than his jaw dropping, as the marksman had hoped, Al just raised an eyebrow in bafflement.
"Why would they do that?" he asked. "What's a Domo?"
"Get this," said Finn with a smile. "Turns out I was their prophesised hero who was going to save them from these big monster things that had been coming out of this great big crevasse and eating everything!"
"And did you?"
"Yeah, of course! But, um-"
"He didn't exactly do it by himself," Aerrow said as he entered. "I had to swoop in and pull him out when things got rough. He's got this weird thing with getting eaten."
"Eaten?" Al giggled.
"Dude, shut up!" Finn said objectively.
"I'm guessing he hasn't mentioned the Black Gorge to you yet, has he?" asked Aerrow as Ed followed him in.
"The Black Gorge? What's that?" Al queried curiously.
"Nope," said Finn, and he slapped his hands over his ears. "Dude, if you're gonna tell this story, I'm not gonna listen!"
"Oh come on, don't be such a buzzkill," said Ed. "What's this about the Black Gorge? It sounds badass and cool, come on!"
Aerrow wasn't entirely certain how he was supposed to respond now that he was fixed by two pairs of eager golden eyes, and his wingman had just started humming to himself, so adamant he was not to have to relive the experience.
Thankfully, at that moment, the door opened again and yet another teen entered the room.
"Piper!" he said with relief. "First off, good morning. Second, I could kinda use a bit of help explaining our thing with the Black Gorge to the Elrics, so…"
"Oh! Uh…" Now Piper was unsure. "Well, I was kinda wondering if I could get some help."
"What do you need help with?" Aerrow asked, glad for the distraction.
"I'll have to show you," Piper told him. "Elrics, I think you'd be best suited to dealing with this."
Ed and Al looked round.
"What is it?" asked Ed.
"You're gonna have to follow me," said Piper. "There's no way I'll be able to make her move by myself."
This is what prompted all four of the boys to get up and follow her as she led them through the house and up the stairs, and stopped outside Winry's bedroom.
She quietly opened the door and pushed it open.
Winry stood before an easel with khaki overalls tied at her hips and a green bandana restraining her hair. She was pressing a wooden ruler to a large blue-gridded sheet of paper and drawing with a pencil. Her face wasn't visible, but she was most likely frowning in concentration.
"She was like this before I woke up," Piper explained, "and I can't get her to stop. She won't even speak to me!"
Ed stepped into the room, moving slowly, not making any sudden movements as he approached the mechanic.
"Hey, Winry?" he said. "You know what time it is, don't you?"
"Mmm," said Winry.
"Then you'll know it'll be a good idea to take a break from this and come and get something to eat, right?"
"Mmm."
"So why don't you?"
"Mmm!"
"Okay, okay!" Ed stepped back with his hands raised defensively. "Do you at least want me to get you something to drink?"
"Mmm."
"Just a glass of water or juice. I'm not asking you to stop working. Come on, you have to have something."
"…mmm."
"Okay, I'll see if we have any orange juice left."
"Mmm!"
"Apple juice, then."
Ignoring all the stares aimed in his direction, Ed walked out of the room and carefully closed the door behind him.
"She does this a lot," he explained to the Storm Hawks. "Once she gets started on a project, it's next to impossible to get her to stop. She gets so committed that she forgets to eat or sleep."
"A project?" asked Al. "But she finished her last commission while you were in Central!"
"So why would she be designing an automail arm?" asked Ed.
His gaze shifted to Aerrow.
"Well?" he said.
"Well what?" asked Aerrow, again feigning ignorance. "What're you asking me for?"
Ed's eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Suddenly he kicked out, hitting the Sky Knight on the shoulder with his foot, and Aerrow was sent flying to the floor before quickly jumping to his feet, now preparing for a fight.
"Dude, what the hell?!"
"Brother, what're you doing?!"
"Why did you just-"
"All of you stay out of this!" Ed thrust his hand in the direction of the three other teens who jumped away in shock. "This is between me and Aerrow and I want it to stay that way. If any one of you interferes you'll pay for it!"
He casually leaned to one side as Aerrow threw a punch at his face, grabbed the Sky Knight's arm and swung him around so that he was pinned face-first against the wall, now struggling to move.
While holding him there, Ed yanked the glove off his left hand.
It was a tense moment as he stared at what had been revealed, gritting his teeth in anger. Realising what was happening, Aerrow stopped struggling.
"You know," the ex-alchemist said, sounding worryingly calm, "during the time I spent with you guys in Atmos, I came to trust you. I considered you to be friends. Heck, I even started to like some of you."
Finn and Piper looked to each other in confusion.
"So maybe you could tell me…"
Ed stepped back, still holding Aerrow against the wall but showing the metal hand for all to see.
"…WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR SKY KNIGHT?!"