DISCLAIMER: Sorry. Do not own FMA. Only own fic & OC(s). Arigatou, ne.
Twenty-One
Alphonse was in quite a peculiar state of mind. He had been kidnapped by chimeras and a homunculus, and one of said chimeras had been slain inside him, and that action had triggered his memories of being swallowed by the Portal and having his body taken by Truth. He was saddened by the death and honestly frightened by the memories; in all, his emotions were muddled and confusing.
But he had to move on. He would always have to move on with his brother. Slowing down or turning back could potentially be disastrous to their mission. Mourning for too long wasn't allowable.
But, just like Nina, he would never forget Martel.
At least he knew that Edward and Delilah were there for him.
The thought of the girl made him a bit happy, to be honest. He was her friend, so of course he'd be there for her, but to hear her say that she would be there for him too made him want to smile. She had essentially said the same thing before—when she had been trying to protect them all from Envy's threat—but hearing her say it actually made a huge impact, especially in the state that Alphonse was in last night. He felt a little guilty about it, but he was actually a little glad that Delilah knew what it was like to never be able to escape from thoughts during the nighttime. She understood, and even though he'd always had his brother, he felt a little less alone with her there, too.
Alphonse waited patiently while Ed and Delilah got ready to leave. Ed had already taken a shower the night before, so he was prepared to go even when Delilah was shutting herself in the bathroom for a while.
"Hope she doesn't make us late for the train," Ed muttered, only half-joking.
Alphonse would have smiled. "She won't, I'm sure."
At that moment, Izumi walked into the room and beckoned Ed and Al into the kitchen. The brothers shared a confused (and terrified) look before they followed her. The woman closed the door behind them and motioned for them to sit down at the table.
"Okay, boys, let's make this quick," Izumi began, crossing her arms. "If anything bad happens to that girl, I'll come after you both myself."
The boys flinched. When Al recovered, he said, "Of course we won't let anything happen to her, Teacher. Why are you telling us this?"
"Because trouble seems to follow you everywhere," Izumi said. "But anyway, I just want you to remember that she is physically more fragile than the average girl…but something tells me she'll become more resilient," she added in a mutter. "In any case, don't you two be stupid; and pay attention to her, because she seems to bottle herself up and that's no good for anyone."
"…I noticed," Al admitted, remember how he had comforted Delilah the other day.
"We noticed," Ed corrected.
"If anything happens, you can always send her back here. We'd be grateful to have her, but I know that's not what she wants." She suddenly sighed and looked hard at the boys. "And there's one last thing: I think that you should tell her everything, so long as you're her teachers. For example…I didn't warn you about human transmutation, and look where that got you."
There was a moment of silence.
Ed frowned. "We've told her that."
Al was already shaking his head, recalling how they had told Delilah to leave the other night so that the two of them could talk in private about how Al's memories of the Portal had returned. "No. We've told her we've done it and it's obvious what the consequences were, but we haven't told her everything. Not about Truth, nor about alchemy without a circle. And as long as she's our student—and our friend—I think she deserves to know the truth."
Ed sighed. "…I guess." He turned back to Izumi. "Do you need to tell us anything else, Teacher?"
"Just that you should be really careful. I have a feeling that something is definitely up with the military, especially after that slaughter yesterday. Don't let your guards down."
"Yes, Teacher," the brothers chorused.
"…And don't forget to call or drop by," Izumi added. "And DON'T get yourselves killed, or I'll kill you myself!" she snapped.
"Y-yes, Teacher!"
()()()()()
Izumi gave Delilah a hug. "Don't forget that you're always welcome here," the woman told her. "Come and visit sometime, okay?"
Delilah smiled. When she had first come to Dublith, she hadn't expected to become so attached to the stern woman, but now she realized that she would miss Izumi. "I will."
"Take care of yourselves," Sig said as Ed, in a hurry, practically dragged Delilah away from Izumi and onto the train.
"We will!" Al promised, following after his brother and friend. 'Tell Mason we said goodbye!"
There was a chorus of farewells before Ed led the way into the train compartment and found the group a place to sit, which was easy to do since the train car was mostly deserted; there weren't many travelers around the Dublith area.
"Ugh, I can't wait to get this fixed," Ed muttered, flexing his arm. The parts were still mostly functional, but a few of the outermost pieces were missing, exposing the chords and gears in his forearm.
"You're lucky you didn't completely break it again," Al noted.
"Winry would kill you," Delilah added.
"…She's still going to hit me," Ed moaned.
Delilah simply smiled before she pulled out her transmutation gloves. The left one, with its more basic circle, was finished, but the other one wasn't.
"How're you coming along on that?" Al asked, ignoring his brother's near-apocalyptic complaints.
Delilah picked up the right glove and pointed at its palm. "I traced an outline for the circle. I was thinking about using my left glove to transmute the thread into the cloth to make it permanent…."
"Try it," Al encouraged.
Ed sat up straight, forgetting about his impending doom for the moment. "Go ahead, Del."
She was a bit nervous at having them both watch her work with the gloves that she had never even tried before, but she obliged. She slipped on the left glove and found the red thread she had been using to stitch in the circles. She took a breath and focused her energy, and with a small flash of light, a transmutation circle that would've taken her hours to stitch was done in an instant.
Delilah blinked in astonishment and inspected her work. "It…looks all right."
"Here, try it out on me," Ed offered, rolling up his sleeve and showing Delilah his flesh arm. There was a fresh scar on his bicep.
"O-okay." Delilah put on the glove and held it just over Ed's skin. Once more she focused, and there was a small flash of light before Ed's skin healed. All that was left was a faint line where the cut had been.
"That's amazing," Al praised, and she did her best to fight a blush.
"I am just happy that I will not always have to draw a circle whenever I transmute," she admitted. "It might be useful."
At her words, Ed looked at his hands, and when Al noticed his actions, he grew quiet as well. Delilah noticed their looks and became concerned.
"…Is something wrong?" she asked hesitantly.
Ed took a breath. "There's…something we should tell you."
Al glanced around quickly to make sure no one was close by. "…We haven't told you everything about human transmutation."
The sudden turn in the conversation had thrown Delilah for a loop. "What do you mean?"
"Teacher suggested we should tell you…and we think you should know everything," Al explained.
"But I thought I did know everything," she said. "You performed it and Edward lost his arm and leg and you lost your body."
"I only lost my leg when we tried to transmute our mother," Ed said quietly.
Delilah stared at him in confusion. "What?"
Ed sighed. "When you perform human transmutation, you open the Portal and it drags you in and takes you to this white place where this…thing called Truth lives. It's…a white body, for lack of a better word."
"You get pulled through your own alchemic gate," Al continued when his brother paused. "Alchemic knowledge just…pours into you. But then, Truth collects a toll from you in equivalent exchange." He moved his steel arms to prove his point. "After you come back, alchemy is easier to understand and perform, and…"
"…you can transmute without circles," Ed finished. "When I lost my leg, Al's whole body was being sucked into the Portal," Ed said, staring at his hands. "I performed the transmutation and gave up my arm to bind his soul to the armor."
There was a long pause. "…That's basically it, I think," Al finished.
Delilah stared at them silently, running the information through her head while the brothers fidgeted.
"…And you are telling me this because you do not want me to commit human transmutation?" she asked.
"It's not worth it," Ed said immediately. "You can't bring the dead back to life, Del. And all the alchemic knowledge may be a plus, but Truth took my limbs, Teacher's organs, and Al's whole body. It's not worth it."
Delilah didn't know what to say.
"You have to promise us that you won't do it, Delilah," Alphonse begged, leaning forward.
"Please, Del," Ed added.
She stared at them in shock. Why would she want to bring someone back to life? There was no one beyond the grave that she wanted to bring back…unless Marcoh was actually dead. Simply thinking "what if" was one thing, but part of her knew that if she surrogate father actually was dead, human transmutation would be tempting.
"Del—" Ed began.
"W-what if the doctor is dead?" she whispered.
"Then you still can't do it," Al told her. "You'd only end up hurting yourself, and Marcoh wouldn't want that. And we don't want that, which is why we're telling you not to do it." He reached forward and grabbed her hand. "Please promise us, Delilah."
Ed followed his brother's lead and grabbed Delilah's free hand with his own automail one, but didn't say anything.
She stared at them both, seeing in their eyes all the hurt and struggles they had gone through. It was enough—far more than enough—to sway her.
"I promise."
()()()()()
The rest of the ride was spent discussing why the brothers wanted to go back to Central. Delilah was as confused as they were as to why the Fuhrer would want to cover up all the chimeras by killing them, but she was in quite a state of shock. It was hard to think of the Fuhrer in such a light after having met a seemingly friendly man. She spent most of the hour-long ride in silence, turning over all the information in her mind.
Unsurprisingly, Rush Valley was no different than it had been when they'd last visited. Ed muttered some rather obscene things under his breath as the trio made their way through the streets. Thankfully, Al remembered the way to Garfiel's shop, and he led the group there. The closer they got, the more excited Al and Del became at the fact that they were going to see Winry; on the other hand, Ed was getting more and more depressed.
"Maybe if I act like nothing's wrong, she won't hit me," he muttered.
So when they finally got to Garfiel's shop, he did just that. But Winry still smacked him with her wrench.
Other than that, meeting up with Winry made Delilah incredibly happy, and after the girls hugged, the whole game of catching-up occurred. Paninya happened to be at the shop, too—she explained that she was changing her ways and working for a living by fixing roofs. She, Al, and Delilah talked for a little bit while Winry assessed the damage on Ed's arm and asked about Dublith. Ed only told her that they'd made a little progress—and she didn't seem impressed (most likely because she could easily tell that Ed wasn't telling her something)—and mentioned that they were going to Central next to do some research.
"You're going to Central? I wanna go, too!" the mechanic exclaimed.
"Why, Winry?" Delilah asked.
She let out a modest chuckle. "I actually want to see Mr. Hughes and his family and thank them for letting me stay with them!"
"Oh, I will go with you, then!" Delilah said, remembering back to Elicia's birthday party. That seemed like a lifetime ago already.
"We never did thank him properly for when he helped out while I was in the hospital," Ed said.
"…I have to work, though," Winry realized.
Garfiel overheard her. "It's all right, Winry, dear. You've been working like a busy little bee ever since you came here. Take some time off, I insist! You deserve it."
"Thank you, Mr. Garfiel!" Winry exclaimed before turning back to the brothers and Delilah. "Well, I guess we're all going!"
()()()()()
Winry had to go and make sure she had all the parts to fix Ed's arm, so the brothers and Delilah headed out into the streets. Paninya was too busy to hang out with them, and Ed was extremely opposed to spending quality time with "Mr. Rainbow," as he put it. He even felt that it was better to brave Rush Valley than stay in the shop.
"This place is so boring. The only things here are automail shops!" he complained as they trudged along.
"You seem to be happy, Alphonse," Delilah noticed, ignoring Ed for the moment. There was a certain…lightness in Al's steps that she had noticed.
"That's because everyone thinks I have a full-body automail! I can walk around in peace without fearing that someone might discover my true nature." He waved at a couple of people passing by, and they cheerily waved back.
"I see what you mean," Ed commented.
He started to talk about something or other, but Delilah's attention was suddenly drawn to something lying in a nearby alley. She came closer to it—Al noticed as well and followed—and discovered that it wore a yellow jacket with white pants, had a sheathed sword, black hair—
Delilah immediately tugged on Al's hand. "H-he is unconscious…!"
Al fidgeted and looked back. "Come here, Brother!"
"You're acting like you do whenever you see a kitten. You find a stray or something?" Ed asked, not sounding pleased.
Al picked up the poor person and showed him to Ed. "Yup!"
Ed—understandably—was shocked, but he got over it pretty quickly and came forward to inspect the guy. "He's out cold, huh?"
"It looks that way," Al said.
Delilah felt the young man's wrist for a pulse. "He seems to be okay…just unconscious."
There was a loud growl, and the trio turned to the stranger's stomach.
"Take him back to wherever you found him," Ed said simply.
"How can you be so mean?!" Al and Delilah chorused.
Luckily (or perhaps unluckily, as Ed would later say), the two managed to convince Ed that they needed to help the person, and he begrudgingly agreed to take the guy to a food stand. Oddly, simply putting a plate of grub in front of the guy's face was enough to wake him up. He practically inhaled the food and begged for more, and before Ed's wallet knew it, a huge amount of food had been both ordered and eaten by the stranger.
When he was finished, the young man shouted in joy and thanked them earnestly for the meal. This led to Ed complaining that he didn't want to pay for something he didn't eat—and somehow that led to Ed thinking that he was being called short by whoever this guy was.
The young man ignored Ed's outburst, though. "I never expected to find such kindness so far from home," he said, over-exaggerating his words a little bit. "I am humbled by your generosity."
Delilah's curiosity—and concern, for the guy had just woken up—overcame her shyness of the stranger. "Um, are you from Xing?" she asked, judging by his accent, clothes, and rather narrow eyes.
He brightened. "Yup! Sure am."
"All the way from the east?!" Ed exclaimed. "Wasn't it hard crossing the desert?"
The stranger laughed. "'Hard' is an understatement. The desert is merciless." He leaned over and picked up a stick, drawing two circles in the dirt. He labeled one "Amestris" and the other "Xing." He drew two lines connecting the two "countries," but crossed one out. "With the railroad totally buried in sand, I had to brave the wasteland with horse and camel. For the final stretch, I followed the route through the ruins of Xerxes."
"Xerxes?" Ed repeated. "But I heard that there's nothing there."
"There's just a legend that says that it was destroyed in a single night," Alphonse added. "Are you here as a tourist?"
"No," the stranger said. "I'm here to gather information. I came to research your country's alkahestry."
Delilah vaguely recognized the word. "Xingese alchemy, right?"
"Ah yes, that's your word for it!" the stranger said. "Alkahestry is used for medical purposes, but you all use it for science, don't you?"
"I use it for medicinal purposes," Delilah explained.
"Usually it's used for military reasons, though. Guess it's a cultural difference," Ed said, taking the stick from the stranger and drawing more circles in the dirt diagram. "Even now we have continuous border conflicts with Aerugo to the south and Creta to the west. In the north is the nation of Drachma. We've signed a non-aggression treaty with them, but the only reason they don't attack us is because Mt. Briggs acts as a natural barrier. So the situation is unstable over there, too."
"What a tough country," the stranger sighed.
"There has always been some sort of fighting going on at any given time," Delilah said.
"It was only when Bradley became Fuhrer that war really became our life," Ed pointed out seriously.
"Maybe if we didn't focus so much on the military, alchemy would have developed a way to benefit the people, like in Xing," Alphonse said, and Ed agreed.
"D-do you think you could teach is more about alkahestry?" Delilah asked; she was intrigued about such a medical-based alchemy system.
"It sounds really interesting; I want to learn, too," Al said. Even Ed showed excitement at the idea.
"Oh, so are you three all alchemists?" the stranger asked.
"Yup, I'm Edward Elric, a state alchemist!"
"I'm Alphonse Elric. I'm the younger one, believe it or not."
"I-I am Delilah Heywood…. I want to be an alchemic doctor."
The stranger grinned brightly. "A state alchemist? How lucky I am to have met such talented people!" He rose to his feet and reached across the table to shake everyone's hands. "My name is Ling Yao! It's an honor!"
"So," Ed said once the introductions were over, "about that 'alkahestry' alchemy that you were talking about earlier…think you could give us a demonstration?"
"I'm afraid not!" Ling said, entirely good-naturedly. "I don't know how to do it!"
The trio of alchemists pretty much fell over.
"Then what are you researching alchemy for?!" Ed demanded.
Ling frowned in thought. "Hm… I'm looking for something. Perhaps you've heard of it…
"…the Philosopher's Stone."
()()()()()
"Old man! Bring me another one of your tasty desserts. Just put it on the armor brothers' tab."
Delilah could only stare at Ling. She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but she had ended up alone with him while Ed and Al were busy fending off Ling's Xingese…bodyguards, she supposed.
As soon as he was done ordering, Ling stared right back at her and grinned. "Well, aren't you cute! Delilah, right?"
She nearly fell out of her chair.
Ling brought a hand to his chin in thought. "You're a little small for my tastes, though."
Once upon a time she wouldn't have gotten the implication, but since she had "become a woman," she'd become more self-conscious. Her face went red. "W-what are you doing to Edward and Alphonse?" she demanded, trying to ignore what he'd said.
"Me? Nothing. Oh, thanks, old man!" Ling said, accepting another dish from the waiter and digging into the dessert. "Oh, sorry, you want some?" he offered, extending a spoonful of something or other in her direction. She opened her mouth to refuse, but he stuck the spoon in her mouth, depositing some rather delicious chocolate cake inside before he pulled the spoon back and began eating again.
Delilah was distracted by the taste for a moment and took the time to enjoy it before she remembered herself and nearly choked when she hastily tried to swallow. "I-I mean—what are your…people doing to them?!"
"Oh, Lan Fan and Fu? They're fighting them. But only because they won't tell me anything about the Philosopher's Stone when they obviously know something. Don't worry, though; they aren't all going to get hurt or anything. Only if they resist too much."
"T-too much?!"
Ling waved away her worries like they were nothing. "Just relax!"
She couldn't. "…Who are you?"
He suddenly grinned and rested his elbow against the table, leaning closer. "You really wanna know?"
Suddenly she didn't, but she didn't move or say anything.
"The twelfth prince of Xing."
She stared at him.
"No, really, I am." He raised an eyebrow. "Want me to take you back to my palace to show you?"
"N-no!"
Ling just grinned. "I bet you say no just because you're pretty attached to one of those brothers. Which one? The big one, or the little one? Well, I guess that's potentially an…ambiguous question. Anyway!" he went on, ignoring Delilah's tomato-red face. He hopped to his feet and hurried around the table to grab her by the hand. "Let's go check on our friends, shall we?"
a/n: Oh god, part of me thinks that Ling wasn't very in-character in that last scene, but I had fun writing it! XD I adore Ling. Also, just to note, pretty much all terms are going to come from the English dub, so it's alkahestry instead of "rendanshu/the purification arts" in the manga.
anyway
one hundred and ten. 110. reviews. REALLY. REALLY. jf;lasjfd;laksfj holy crap I love all of you. And Insomniacs has even been put in a community list! I'm so, so glad that you all seem to really like this story, and don't worry, I'm doing my best not to disappoint you all! For a little while, this story will have some relatively...normal stuff going on, I guess you could say; like going back to Central, meeting up with everyone there, and so on. However, I think we're starting to come close to where the story's going to take a dark turn. It definitely won't be for a few chapters.
The reason I'm kinda...nervous about it is because I consider it really dark and potentially disturbing to some readers. In the chapter before that, I'll put a trigger warning, and at the top of the actual chapter I'll put the reasoning for the trigger warning so as to avoid spoilers as much as possible. But then again, I will admit that I could VERY WELL be making a mountain out of a molehill. But I'd rather be careful and helpful to you all instead of being mean or something like that.
Once again, thank you all very much for all the reviews and support! I'm going to be busy with other things for an indefinite amount of time, but I will always try to work on this fic in my spare time! Don't forget to leave a review on your way out, please and thank you!