My skin was singed when I brushed up against Ed's auto-mail arm.
I rubbed it furiously.
"Ouch!" I screeched in pain, "gahh! I hate the freaking desert" I screeched again trying to walk in a straight line.
"So… So hot make it go away" Ed mumbled slouching forward.
We had been walking in the heat for hours now, I had my jacket wrapped around my waist and my arm was red raw from continuously hitting Ed's auto-mail.
"Come on guys, surly you can handle a little heat" Armstrong said walking in front of us.
"Least you forget my right arm and left leg is made out of metal!" Ed snapped at him.
"And I keep getting burnt from it!" I snapped as well.
Ed leant against me again.
"Ouch! You could cook a bloody meal on the kid" I added in frustration, he simply pressed his arm harder against me.
I shoved him away.
"Hey watch it!" He protested.
I looked down the big sand hill he had nearly fallen down, it was at least fifty feet high and the path we were on could only fit two people, unless you were Armstrong then just one.
Ed's arm hit me again and I squeaked in pain.
"Oh for god freaking sake" I shouted.
He smirked at me.
"You stand on this side, I don't want to be cooked alive" I said swapping sides with him.
"Anyone want a drink?" Breda called out from up ahead.
"Ooh me" Ed and I said practically climbing over each other trying to grab the bottle from over Armstrong's shoulder.
We both grabbed it at the same time.
"Be carful guys you don't want to fall off the side of the dune" Breda said while we wrestled for the bottle.
"Ill burn you" Ed said holding up his hand.
I glared at him.
"Do it and you're a dead man" I warned him.
"Then I get first drink" he told me.
I scowled at him.
"No, haven't you heard the saying ladies first?" I argued.
He snorted with amusement.
"Yeah but you're not a lady" he said with a smirk.
I held onto the water bottle tighter.
"Am too" I snapped defensively.
"Are not" he said back.
I yanked the water bottle out of his hands and he glared at me, I pulled off the lid and put it to my mouth but Ed yanked it back and drank the rest of it.
My mouth dropped open.
"You bastard!" I shouted smacking him, "he drank the whole thing!" I complained to everyone else.
Ed was laughing to himself holding his arms up blocking me.
He found all this quite amusing.
"Geez Ed that's the last of the water" Breda spoke up, "oh well Lexie, you'll have to wait until we get there" I looked around at the empty desert.
"Get where?! There's nothing but desert for miles" I shouted throwing my hands in the air but everyone ignored me.
I glared at Ed.
He shrugged at me innocently.
"Bastard" I growled.
We continued on, walking through the desert but it was getting more difficult for me, my mouth was dry and having no fluids was making me start to feel over heated and dizzy.
I leaned to my right and put all my weight on Ed.
He grunted at me in discomfort but leaned against me, we were swaying side to side.
"Lexie" Ed mumbled.
"What?" I mumbled back.
"It's hard enough to walk myself I can't carry your weight either" he complained.
"Well if you didn't drink all the freaking water we wouldn't be in this situation" I snapped. He shut up and we both started to lean to the right until Ed's foot slipped off the sand dune and he stumbled down it. I didn't even bother trying to catch him.
I just stood there and watched him stumble down then started laughing.
"Ha!" I shouted out, "that's karma for drinking all the water" he still hadn't reached the bottom yet.
The sand underneath my feet started to collapse and I scrambled backwards but not in time before I was quickly following Ed down the dune.
"What did I tell you kids!" Breda shouted.
I finally landed at the bottom on top of Ed.
He grunted in pain.
"This is all your fault" Ed grumbled from under me.
I laughed.
"Karma's a bitch" he squirmed under but I didn't move gazing up at the sky.
"No, you're the bitch now get off me!" He snapped at me.
I rolled off him.
"You can't blame everything on me" I said sitting up.
I squinted up the sand dune trying to see through the bright sun light.
My face fell as Ed sat up brushing himself off.
"Ah I suggest we move" I muttered scrambling back.
Ed glared at me then up the sand dune.
His face dropped.
"Oh shit" he muttered. The dune was slowly collapsing and everyone else falling down it, I managed to get out the way in time but it was too late for Ed, everyone and the sand collapsed on top of him.
All I could see was Ed's auto-mail hand sticking out of the sand as everyone else got to their feet and brushed themselves off.
It twitched and I started laughing.
Ed got about half of himself out of the sand but the rest of him was stuck.
I laughed even harder at him.
"Lexie" he growled at me, "help would be nice" I wiped away a fake tear and grabbed his arm.
Everyone else stood around watching us.
I tugged on Ed's arm but he wasn't budging.
"You're really stuck in there" I said tugging on his arm some more, his arm slipped from my grip and I fell backwards into the sand.
"God you're weak!" he spat at me.
I sat up glaring at him.
"It's not my fault your fat!" I spat back crossing my arms defensively.
"Im not fat!" He shrieked at me, "I've got metal limbs!"
"Let me try Edward, I may be able to save you" Armstrong roared and yanked him out of the sand.
Ed fell next to me moaning.
"I think my arm is going to fall off" he groaned in pain clutching his left shoulder.
"Carful Armstrong, he's only a small kid remember" I said with a smirk.
Ed's head shot up staring at me.
"Oh I'm sorry Edward Elric, this strength has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations" Armstrong exclaimed, Ed was too busy glaring at me to even both paying attention to Armstrong's rant.
"Don't call me small!" He snapped at me.
We both leaped to our feet and I backed away.
"Come on Ed lets not have one of your hissy fits right now" I said trying to calm him down but it was too late, he started chasing me and I didn't really want to get either a fist in the face or a burnt palm print on me.
"Stay still!" he screeched.
We circled everyone.
"I will when you stop chasing me" I shouted back at him.
"Ill stop chasing you when you stay still!"
"No, I don't want a permeant hand print on me from your scorching auto-mail!"
We continued to circling everyone, no one bothered to interrupt us.
"Then don't call me small!"
"I'm just stating facts short stack"
"Gahh!" He shouted in frustration.
"Look" Mr Han said pointing in front of us.
I came to a stop and Ed ran into me.
"Watch it" I hissed but he was tranced to the ruined city in front of us. I looked at the Cselkcess ruins in front of us, it was just as breath taking as Ling had described it to be.
"Wow" I whispered in amazement.
We walked into the Cselkcess ruins and once I spotted shade I decided to stand in it leaning on my knees breathing heavily. I wish Ed hadn't chased me, I had no energy left.
"Oh shit" I panted, "I've never walked so much in so much heat in my life" Ed decided I was the perfect height for an arm rest.
He put his arm on my head and leaned against me.
"That was a pretty tiring walk" he said only slightly tired.
"Didn't help that you were chasing me" I said pushing him off me.
He shrugged.
"Next time you'll watch your mouth" he said with a smile.
"I've been waiting" Foo said from beside us.
Ed and I jumped in shock. We stood there staring at him.
Foo walked past us to go join the others.
"Whats he doing here?" Ed asked me.
"I don't know…" my voice trailed off when I noticed a water hole, it didn't take long for Ed to notice it as well.
"Hello Foo" Mr. Han greeted Foo while Ed and I stared at the water hole intently.
"You reckon thats our drinking water?" Ed asked me.
I shrugged at him.
"I don't know" I muttered, "and I sure don't care, I'm going to go sit in it" I turned towards it and walked off.
"Why did you bring the two children?" Foo asked.
I stopped instantly and turned around to stare at Foo.
I looked to Breda to explain but he didn't say a word.
"Thats what id like to ask you!" Ed exclaimed, "I wanna know why this psyco-geezer is here and why you dragged me across this godforsaken desert but most of all I want a glass of water!" Ed totally blew up.
Everyone looked at me to blow up next.
I pointed at Ed.
"Im with him on this one" I agreed with Ed.
"Er… I'm not sure why" Foo admitted, "but there is a water hole just over there" he added pointing towards the water hole I was already climbing into, "that is for drinking!" He added quickly but it was too late. I was already in and Ed was following very quickly.
"Oh sweet heaven" I squeaked feeling my hot skin cool down.
"Guys we have to drink that!" Breda snapped but we both waved him off. He had dragged us out here, he was going to have to deal with us.
"Kids, I hate them" Breda muttered under his breath to himself.
"So what do you guys know about this place?" Foo asked us crouching on the side of the water hole.
Ed and I both looked up at him not getting out of the water.
"All I knew about this place is from the story about the philosopher from the Eastern desert" Ed spoke up.
I nodded in agreement.
"From the East?" Foo asked.
"Yeah" I replied, "a children's story about the one who taught alchemy in our country" it was like a bed time story.
"We have a story similar except it was called the philosopher from the West" Foo stated.
"Your country's alchemy specialises in medicines, right?" Ed asked.
Foo nodded.
"But in the distant past it was the product of illusion and imagination, you wouldn't call it alchemy by todays standard."
Breda's face dropped into confusion when Foo started talking.
I could actually follow along for once.
"They say that in ancient Xing, three generations of the imperial family died from investigating mercury because they thought it had the power to grant immortality. Thats when the great man from the West came and taught us the way of alchemy, his teaching melded with the ancient techniques of Xing and the result is what you see today."
He paused for a minute when Armstrong dragged Ed and I out of the water hole after Breda had complained to him.
The water evaporated straight away from our skin.
"We respectfully call him by this name The Philosopher From The West" Foo said in pride.
He gestured for us to follow him and he led us into the crumbling dead city which looked amazing with the decorated carvings into the walls.
Ed stopped in front of me and looked up at what looked like a transmutation circle.
"Seen it before?" I asked squeezing all the water out of my hair.
"Yeah" he mumbled thinking hard about it.
Ed stared at it for a long moment. I could practically see the gears in his head moving.
"Hurry up children!" Breda called out, "Mustang wouldn't be impressed if we lost you out here!"
We hurried to catch up with everyone else.
"Where are we going?" Ed asked but everyone ignored him. They were all insisting on not telling us what was going on, this whole thing better be worth it.
"She's pretty far in, isn't she?" Breda asked Foo.
I looked at him puzzled but he ignored me.
"We couldn't risk anyone finding her" Foo stated.
"A women?" Ed asked, still we got no response. "this is getting really irritating guys" he muttered crossing his arms, they led us into one of the crumbling houses.
"Edward? Alexis?"
I looked up to see Maria Ross.
We both froze.
I was speechless, I didn't know what to do.
"That darn Colonel" Ed snapped.
I put my hand to my head.
I felt like an idiot.
"Im going to kill him" I muttered, "Im actually going to kill him" Roy had let me think he had killed her, I had said all those horrible things when I shouldn't have. Danny had said not everything is as it seems. Even my own damn brother knew! I didn't know if I felt guilty for saying and acting how I had or if I was angry because no one said anything to me until now, they let me stir in my own rage hating Roy.
"The guilt is real" Breda said with a smirk.
I glared at him.
"Im going to kill him and you!" I snapped taking a step towards him clenching my fists.
Armstrong put a hand on my shoulder.
"Now now Alexis, lets not waste your energy out here" he said warning me.
Breda took a step away from me.
I felt guilty as hell, humiliated for the way I acted and plain offended no one told me what was going on.
"What happened?" Ross asked.
Armstrong laughed.
"She feels guilty for the way she acted out at the Colonel" Breda announced.
I gritted my teeth.
"and probably angry no one told her that the whole thing was a hoax"
Armstrong held me back.
"Ill get you for this Breda, ill get you and Roy for this!" I snapped, "you could have at least warned me instead of letting me make a fool of myself!"
He held his hands up at me.
"I was just following orders Lexie" he said putting distance between us.
Armstrong held me so I couldn't do anything irrational.
Ed patted my head.
"Its all right Lexie, now you can apologise" he said with a huge smirk.
I pointed at him.
"You like seeing me suffer, don't you?!" I snapped at me.
Ed shrugged.
"I can't say I don't enjoy it" he admitted,
Ah! This guilt was unbearable.
"I have to say you though, the way you both reacted made everyone believe he had done it that much more, so the Colonel would like to thank you guys on that part but he wasn't impressed with the black eye Lexie" Brenda admitted.
I sighed rubbing my temples.
"All right ill apologise to him when I see him next" I mumbled.
Armstrong put me down since I had calmed down.
Breda leaned towards me.
"Wait did Alexis Mustang just say she was going to apologise?" Breda asked in astonishment, he was having way too much fun.
"Watch it" I growled, "remember what happened last time you did something I didn't like" I said pointing at him.
He held up his hands.
"Yes I did not appreciate that"
I smiled at him.
Last time Breda and I had an altercation I got community service picking up stray dog shit, Breda ended up having an apartment full of stray dogs. It was his fault for letting me know he was absolutely scared shitless of dogs.
"Just keep in mind who I am and what I do best" I warned him.
"Alexis" Ed growled at me.
"Just kidding" I said smiling innocently at Ed.
When he wasn't looking I pointed back at Breda, 'remember me' I mouthed at him.
Breda crossed his arms letting me know he didn't feel threatened by me.
"In exchange for information about Barry's body-"
I lifted my hand pausing Foo.
Roy had sent all of us out here to share information, I was sent out here to see with my own eyes Ross wasn't dead and to shove in my face just how dramatic I was.
Well it takes one to know one uncle.
"Who's Barry?" I asked.
Everyone sighed at me.
"Haven't you been listening?" Foo asked me.
I shrugged.
"You shouldn't be to surprised" Ed mumbled.
"Shut up Ed, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that she's still alive and not that piece of burnt meat we came across in the alley" I snapped pointing at Ross.
Ed sighed at me.
"Is it really that hard or are you trying to figure out how you are going to have to say sorry?" He asked.
I crossed my arms and looked down.
"Shut up" I mumbled in defeat.
He smirked enjoying every bit of my suffering.
"As I was saying" Foo continued, we all shut up to listen. "Barry is the suit of armour like Alphonse, anyway" he said in frustration, "the prince said he would get Maria Ross out of the country for Barry's secret and so the prince gave me orders to take this woman Eastward."
"So after we figured out where she could escape to" Breda said to me and Ed, "Mustang created a human dummy then burnt it so badly that no one would be able to identify it except for the silver bracelets, everything was going perfect until you guys showed up" he said to us.
I crossed my arms and scowled.
I felt like an idiot and a fool.
"But the way you guys acted towards him, everyone believed that he actually did it and that helped us by a mile" I'm just glad I wasn't the only one who acted out, after all Ed had tried to hit Roy as well only I actually succeed.
"When we met up with Foo and the prince, I accompanied them" Ross stated.
"And I promised to meet them here" Breda added.
"All I got was a message from L. T. Breda saying to meet him in Resembool, so I used Edward Elric's auto-mail repair as a reason for bringing him here casually as well as persuading Alexis to come" Armstrong spoke up proudly, thats not how it went.
"Theres nothing casual about kidnapping!" Ed snapped at him, "you kidnapped us!"
"And at the worst time!" I added, "Al and I were going to make Ed confess his love-Ouch!" I shouted at Ed for punching me in the arm.
"Lies Lexie lies!" he shouted with a red face, the time I wasn't lying I get accused for lying.
I punched him back.
"It's not my fault you're a big ass pussy when it comes to that stuff, you wouldn't know how to pick up a girl if there was an alchemy book on it!"
We both stood up.
"We can settle this right now" he growled putting his face in mine.
I smiled.
"Bring it short stack" I growled back.
We both clenched out fists and gritted our teeth ready to show down.
"And this is why I hate kids!" Breda exclaimed, "Major could you seperate them please" he sighed.
Armstrong stood up towering over us.
"Please sit"
We sat not protesting.
Armstrong sat back down with a smile.
"Thank you" Breda said pulling out a note book, "so lets get down to business, the Colonel's entrusted me with the data he's gathered. All parties should exchange information now without holding anything back" Breda said holding out a diary, it went too quiet and I had to say something.
"Ed likes Winry" I said, everyone raised their eyebrows at me.
I shrugged as Ed started to fume beside me in embarrassment again. I had to do something for accusing me of lying.
"Alexis!" He shouted and tried to hit me but this time I was ready and ducked out the way.
"Oh my god!" Breda exclaimed, "I can't even finish a sentence without you two trying to murder each other!"
"He said to give out information that we've been holding back" I protested at Ed.
He gritted his teeth.
"That wasn't what he meant!" he shouted again.
I shrugged smiling to myself.
"All right guys thats enough bickering" Armstrong roared standing up again.
We both went very quiet, I had no intention on pissing him off and neither did Ed.
Breda laid out pictures of the homunculi,
"Thats Lust and Envy" Ed stated pointing to a black haired women and the one I had bumped into at the fifth lab, "and thats Greed who attack us at Dublith" he added.
"So this Envy person is the one who brought Ed to you?" Ross asked me.
I nodded.
"Yeah saying something about how he's important" I added.
Breda started scribbling into the note book.
I looked down at the pictures
"these" I paused to think of a word to use, "things are weird" I wasn't really talking to any one in particular, I was just mumbling to myself, "we've got big tits, the hermaphrodite and then shield guy..."
I looked up and everyone was staring at me.
"It sounded way better in head" I muttered scolding myself for speaking my thoughts out loud.
"You are so weird" Ed sighed at me.
I gestured to the pictures in front of us.
"They are weird" I protested, "I just said what everyone was really thinking" I crossed my arms defensively.
"Hermaphrodite?" Ed asking pointing at the picture of Envy, "really?"
I shrugged.
"Is it a he or a she?" I asked, "we don't know so a hermaphrodite would be a great place to start" I exclaimed at him.
"They're homunculi not humans" Breda stated rolling his eyes at me.
I pointed at him.
"Just because they're not human doesn't mean they don't have genders" I complained at him.
I pointed at Lust.
"you'll damn well hope she's female otherwise those are some huge man boo-"
"Alexis!" Everyone exclaimed for me to shut up.
"All right" I said holding my hands up, "ill just keep it to myself then."
Everyone sighed in relief.
"Please do" Ed said rubbing his head, "I'm never going to look at them the same now" he muttered to himself. Well at least I was being honest.
"The extermination of Greed is something to think about, also it might be worth speaking to Dr Marcoh again" Breda continued. "And Alexis I heard about you attacking the Fuhrer" oh god I had forgotten about that.
"Yeah I know, don't remind me, I did something stupid and I paid the price"
He nodded letting it go which I was glad about.
"L. T…. I mean commodore Hughes" Ed paused, "I can't believe he's really dead" he said softly, "I really didn't know what to say to his wife."
"You spoke to his wife?" Breda and I asked, this is the first I've heard about this.
"Yeah I told her what I knew about the situation and said sorry to her-"
"YOU IDIOT!" Breda shouted hitting him over the head.
I jumped out the way and Ed groaned in pain.
"Do you know how dangerous it is to reveal the details of an incident to the family of the victim, you little runt! This is why I hate kids!"
Breda turned to me and glared at me.
"Hey" I said holding my hands up, "I had no idea he'd done this" I said defensively.
"Then where the hell were you?!" he snapped at me, I didn't say anything.
"Getting drunk" Ed muttered for me.
I glared at him.
"You are so stupid sometimes" Breda sighed at me.
I leant back crossing my arms over my chest glaring down.
"So what did she say?" Breda asked Ed.
"She said to do what ever you think is right" he replied solemnly.
"So what will you do?" Armstrong asked.
I looked at Ed.
He took in a deep breath and sighed.
"Even though my brother and I committed the greatest sin, there are people around us willing to help, there are people who get angry at us, there are people who support us in silence..."
He paused and looked at me.
"And people who keep us on our toes and keep pushing us forward when we most need it" Ed added.
I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and smiled.
We treated each other like crap and fought like there was no tomorrow, but he had the heart to care for me so I was going to do the same.
"So moving forward is the only option" I said with a large grin.
"Right and as long as theres life in my body I swear ill never let another person become victim in this deadly game, I know it's a big promise, its hard enough to protect myself let alone someone else. Maybe its just my ego talking, you might think I'm being naive but this is the only thing that I can think of right now" he paused and sighed, "maybe I'm just an idiot."
"Thats right" Breda spoke up, "you are an idiotic egotistical little brat but you have the biggest idiot by your side and she's one hell of a fighter" I gave Breda my goofy smile, "give it your best shot kids."
I had dived head first into something dangerous again but this time I wasn't going to back out, I was going to face anything that got in my way and see this to the end. Ed's problems just became mine and I don't care how much he thought he could do this alone, he couldn't and he had no intention in putting any of his burdens on Al so that's what I was for. And maybe just maybe I can make up for the things I've done, maybe this adventure will kill me or maybe my eyes will finally be open and I will finally be the person I've always wanted to be.
I leant my head against Ed's.
"No more backing out now Ed" I whispered so only he could hear me, "you are going to get your brothers body no matter what, I promise you" he looked at me and smiled.
"Thank you" he leant against me, "thank you for having faith in me."