This one was a little long, so I think it was worth the wait. I'm assuming that no news is good news with the reviews. Here's hoping. :D

Chapter 25 - Trust

Third day of being stranded. Judging from the sun, it was it was mid morning. The hottest part of the day was yet to come. Ed and Ling sat in the small hut with Riza sleeping close at their side. The others had gone out to prepare breakfast. The two of them were allowed to rest until she got up. Everyone had decided to take things in shifts to break the monotony. All of them were skilled with cooking in one way or another, so that was no problem. But breakfast was always the hardest to get. Everything was still cold and wet, covered with morning dew.

Being in the same vicinity as a swamp, their sleeping arrangements needed to be sound. They made their structure in an oblong shape, to match the scenery. It blended with bushes. It even had a tree for roof support off to one side. From afar, it didn't look like anything more than a lush patch in the scenery. The floor was transmuted to insure no burrowing insects made their way in, and if it rained no one would float away. This was where Aria's ability of condensing materials came in handy. She made the floor sandstone with raised edges to keep the water out.

Pitfalls were dug in two strategically chosen locations. Many of them were hopeful some unsuspecting critter would happen by and fall into said trap. Two nights ago, they witnessed a kill. They didn't see it, but it was heard. Thinking 'that doesn't seem like such a bad idea' decidedly meant they needed meat in their diets. Ed went so far as to announce he'd take something out with his own hands. "I'd use my bare teeth at this point."

"I'll eat a crocodile if I have to. I bet I could nab one," Ling pondered, "If only I had some throwing knives and a large chunk of meat to lure one in."

Ed raised an eyebrow, "Uh-I hope you see the problem with your plan," he said.

They heard a soft chuckling from the opposite side of the structure. Riza had been awoken by mention of the word 'crocodile'. She, with the help of the two boys, sat up gently. Inching back to the wall she got herself in a sitting position. "I'm getting kind of hungry," she said quietly. Obviously she was feeling a lot better from a few days ago. Riza's explanation for her behavior was that the fever caused her to hallucinate. She kept having flashes of one of them attacking her, and because of the fever she couldn't tell what was reality or otherwise.

Ling listened outside and sighed, "I can hear them talking about finding meat. We may have to resort to using insects in our meals." The other two no longer looked very hungry. "Oh, so beggars can be choosers then?" Fruit only filled one so far, and being the omnivores they were, they craved meat.

Ed hung his head, "It's better then eating a leather boot." Ed and Ling Laughed.

Riza did not laugh, but she nodded in agreement, "That would be pretty terrible."

Ed nodded, "-and tough as hell...speaking of which," he began, "I have to ask. Where did you learn to grapple like that?" Ed had literally been swept off his feet by her display of technique. He wanted to know more about it.

She shook her head, "I have no idea. I barely remember the whole thing. My body naturally knew what to do-" she said then jumped at the sound of logs being dropped into a pile outside. Roy was in charge of the firewood for the day and was most likely stockpiling for breakfast.

Edward saw the concern in her eyes. Yesterday was the day she was comfortable enough to ask about herself. Roy declined telling her anything. "He must have his reasons." He could tell she was thinking about it.

Riza nervously played with the edge of the blanket on her lap, "I must have done something terrible...I'm not a criminal, am I?" she asked.

"What?" Ed smiled, "No way."

"Edward," Ling interjected, "I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate you going against his words. He is your superior officer, isn't he?"

"Not out here. Out here, he's Roy," Ed said smugly.

"And when we get back?"

"I'll worry about it then," he said in return.

Riza spoke up again, "Maybe I'll try asking him again. Nothing's coming to mind on my own."

Ed stood up, "No, let me talk to him about it. I'll be back." He exited out of the hut and went off to find the Flame Alchemist. Edward was all to familiar at Roy's nasty habit of withholding information. It served a purpose in the past, but this seemed almost cruel. He pulled Roy aside, "She's asking again," he said with a sad tone. "Can't you at least tell her her rank?"

Roy looked concerned, "No."

"Why not? She has a right to know who she is," Ed was beginning to get louder.

"Would you keep your voice down?" Roy snapped, "Listen...she will remember when the time comes."

Ed shrugged, "Whenever that is. She thinks she's sixteen, lost in a jungle with a bunch of strangers claiming to know her. She's terrified."

Roy ran a stressed hand through the side of his hair, "I know you're concerned Edward, but you have to consider what's going on with her right now. You've been talking to her, surely you've noticed it." He took in Ed's confused expression, "I guess you don't know her well enough. Funny, I thought you would have at least-"

"What are you talking about?" Ed was getting frustrated with this man's love to hear his own voice.

"Her eyes," he said abruptly.

Giving it a few seconds to process, he did notice, "She looks scared."

"Riza never loses face. She's killed countless men and yet doesn't have the eyes of a murderer. You saw her out there...it was such a disgrace," he sounded regretful. "Besides, to tell her she's such an accomplished soldier and chance her not be able to live up to that standard anymore, seems much more cruel to me." He had the beginning of a smile on his face, "She deserves a break from the memories of Ishval. What if the things I tell her trigger memories from that time? She could go into full blown PTSD."

He thought about it that way, "...that makes sense, but why not her family? You're keeping too much from her."

"Why do you say that? Because your memories compel you to go forward? Don't be so ignorant. Not everyone is the same as you and your brother. Sometimes memories can drag you down. How would knowing that the only person she trusted was dead?" His tone suggested he wanted the matter to be left alone.

"But she's got trust issues with you. Can't you remind her of friends and family? Why is this so hard?"

"Would you let it go?" he said with snap, "What I do know is of no help." He looked kind of helpless.

Ed realized he hit a nerve, "I'm sorry," he said and directed his attention away.

"..." Roy ran his fingers through his hair and pulled it away from his face. "...it's..." he hesitated.

Edward held up a hand, "Don't worry about it, you don't have to explain anything," he said as he began to walk away. "You've given me plenty of good reasons when you didn't really have to...I'll leave it alone." He was leaving with a loss, but for once it didn't feel like one.

Roy nodded, "Thank you. I'll tell you this though," he said and watched Ed pause to look over his shoulder. "I'm being one hundred percent honest with you when I say; until she joined the military, her father was her only family and friends."

"...What if she remembers things on her own? I'm not going to deny those memories."

He shook his head, "I'm fine with that." Roy went back to the ax they transmuted from two of the nine hunting knives, "Let's not cross all our bridges at once, Fullmetal."

Edward huffed to himself. Of all the things to call him now 'alchemist' wasn't one of them. He now viewed himself as a 'text of alchemic knowledge'; which was all the bragging rights without the glitter. He scanned the camp site for activities. It seemed he was the only one not doing something. Even Ling had helped Riza outside and was monitoring the cooking. "What the hell are you doing?" Ed looked in behind the large smoke stack to where the young prince was. The large stack diffused the smoke and made it look more like fog.

"I need to add more lumber, we have to make soap and this is going to be our only chance." Ling pointed to the east, "The winds are low and we're being shielded by two mountains. If we're the only ones in this valley, no one should see our smoke." The diffuser worked well, but if they wanted enough ash, they needed to burn quite a bit of wood.

"You've proven useful on this trip. Usually you pass out right wh-" he looked down to Ling, who was now on his back. "Get your ass up!"

"Too much smoke, so dizzy," he said as Ed pulled him into the clear air. Standing behind the wood stove not only got hot, but it sucked all the good air right from your lungs.

Being too annoyed to continue with him for now, Ed was off to find something else to do. Which was when it occurred to him; he hadn't seen Al yet. Aria and Winry were hard at work in the small outdoor kitchen, he would try asking them. The ground had two long benches for sitting or cutting. Some large flat stones were collected to cut vegetables on. "Morning," he greeted them with a wave, "Did Either of you see Al?" He walked past Winry and hugged her as he did so. A hand around her shoulder, pulling her in snug.

Aria pointed with a small paring knife in a direction, "I believe I saw him go that way. He said he thought he found some Acai berries. Which is great, we can't get them in Amestris."

"I'll go find him." Ed shuffled off into the woods to look for his brother.

"...I'm glad to see them in good spirits." Aria said as she cut chunks off a corn husk.

"Who, Ed and Al? Yeah. I was worried for a while that one of them was going to snap. Being out in the wild like this is really stressful. I haven't been getting good sleep these last few nights myself."

Aria rubbed her neck, "Me either. I'm really close to transmuting my bag into a pillow." They laughed.

"How about you?" she asked in a quieter tone than before.

Aria was confused at the question at first, but then it occurred to her what she meant. "I'm still holding in there. My heart keeps fluttering though. Here," she held out her hand to gather Winry's. She placed her fingers on her neck to feel a pulse.

Winry nodded, "It feels normal...wait a second," she said, eyes wide, "Do that again."

She shook her head, "I've got no...control over it." What she was referring to was a heart palpitation. Her heart would beat normally for a time, then it would pause for a beat and then begin again as normal. "I remember this feeling from back home, after I got the news about my folks. I'd became so nervous with everything. Even leaving my house would do this to me," she removed Winry's have from her neck and they went back to work.

"Did this start because of what happened with Riza?" she asked quietly, as to ensure Riza didn't overhear. The last thing she needed was to know about was what she did to Aria.

"No. This started when Ed was abducted...then the thing on the bridge...the thing with Riza only made it worse," her breathing was becoming more sporadic. "Even thinking about it makes my heart race."

"I guess it's hard to not think about it right now," Winry looked down to the half empty pot in her hands. So far all they had was corn and a couple of yams. Black pepper was going to be added when the ingredients came to a boil. She held the pot for Aria to put in more harvested corn. "I wish I had some advice for you. Whenever I'm stressed, I work."

"...That's a good idea," she said sounding more up-beat, "I was hoping to learn about Aerugo while I was here. Why should I stop now?" She still had her bag with her alchemy book inside, coupled with a guide to edible foods found in the jungle. "Maybe we can go looking for mushrooms later."

"Alright," Winry said with a smile and laid the pot with all the ingredients on the stove to begin to boil. "Why don't we go now," she saw the spark of fear in Aria's eyes, "Or later."

"No, no. I'll go now...mushrooms can give us the nutrition that meat can't, or rather isn't. So we have to go..." Aria had spent the last few days around the camp ground. She did not want to venture too far, for fear of being eaten, or poisoned, or attacked, or lost, or scared, or anything bad that came to mind at the time.

"Are you sure..." she didn't want to push Aria too far, "I could ask Ed or Al to come with us."

Aria shook her head, "Ed went looking for Al."

"Right. Well, let's go find them." And they were off. It was made clear that they needed to have a weapon on hand at all times; Winry brought along her spanner and Aria a machete. They weren't chancing anything.

The section of the forest they were in was particularly lush, so that was a small blessing. They had hacked their way through some brush looking for 'edibles' and left a noticeable path in their wake. It was wide enough to walk down and not have to worry about surrounding bushes harboring unsightly insects. From the looks of the terrain, there was once a farm where they were, so there were still some garden variety plants floating around, making their way in the wild.

A short distance in, they saw the two brothers. Alphonse could be seen balancing himself in between two palm trees. He lowered a bag with something in it to Edward. "Last one," he said as the girls got closer.

"What's all this?" Aria asked from behind Winry.

Al looked over to her and smiled, "Hey, you've come out pretty far."

She nodded nervously, "Don't remind me." Her hands were rubbing one another furiously.

"Here," he said and handed her a small bundle of fruit still on it's branch. "These are acai palm fruit, right?"

Aria took the bundle in hand and examined it, "Yup. I've always wanted to try these," she said and plucked one off to eat. "Watch out for the seeds," she said as she removed the husk of the berry between her teeth, which was less than half the mass of the whole berry. "See," she took the seed out and showed them.

"Huh, kind of glad I didn't pile a bunch of them in my mouth. Why did we need these? Haven't you had enough fruit?" Ed asked as Al jumped down from the tree.

"Roy wanted them," he said and jumped down.

Ed looked around for prying eyes. "Speaking of Roy...how do you guys feel about how he's treating Riza?" he asked quietly. Edward wasn't trying to start any trouble. He merely wanted reassurance that he wasn't the only one who felt uneasy about it all.

"I understand why he's doing it, but I wish he'd tell her something about her home," Alphonse looked worried.

"What if she remembers Ishval first?" was Winry's go to.

"She was in Ishval?" Aria said with an astonished tone. She received solom nods. "What was her...uh-"

Ed interjected, "A sniper. Worthy of the name 'Hawkeye'." He glazed over her role. She had long since atoned for her sins in the past so there was no cloud over her name in his mind. "So what can we do for her?"

They stood in silent thought. Nothing came to mind. "The woman's a tank. She's got such a history but she manages to function normally. Even after losing her memory she's still so strong," Aria couldn't get her head around this 'Riza'. She hadn't known Riza previously, so it was hard for her to get how different she really was.

Edward folded his arms, "I don't know how long she's going to keep doing this-"

"Mutiny!" Roy declared and pointed at the group of them standing in a ring. The group remained silent. "What are you plotting?" he said, eying them suspiciously.

Ed was the first to speak up, of course, "Ling," he began.

Ling appeared from behind Roy, "I was only worried for your sake, Edward."

"Shut it you brown-noser." Roy stifled him.

Ling sunk back down, "You Amestrian's are so harsh."

"Cool it, we're brainstorming," Ed sounded annoyed, "As I was saying: This won't last, we need to come up with a way for Riza to start trusting you."

"Is that so?" he said and turned to leave. "Aria, I need your help. The rest of you are welcome to join. Cut out this drama."

"There's no drama!" Ed declared.

Roy brought them to the beach where Ling had been keeping Riza company. "Aria, can you transmute me a couple mirrors?" He pointed to two exact locations, beside and behind, on either side of Riza. "You don't trust me?"

She looked ashamed, "I guess I'm the odd one out, seeing as how all of you have no problem with him." Fortunately Ed was behind her, so she didn't see him roll his eyes.

"Your father trained me in flame alchemy," he said and looked back at the group, a safe distance away. The two mirrors as requested stood on their own on stone bases.

She scoffed, "I'm sure, let's see it then." Riza didn't see the point of the mirrors.

He had a transmutation circle scratched into a block of flint. He activated the circle and struck it with a hunk of iron. The resulting reaction produced a flame that traveled ten feet. It sent a warm gush of air towards them. This was Aria's first glimpse of the Flame Alchemist in action.

Riza looked off to the side, "That only proves you took my shirt off," she said with a hint of blush.

Roy tripped on his words, "I-I...How can I read it? It's been destroyed."

Aria brightened up, her mirrors had purpose. She maneuvered the one closest to her to face Riza's back. Ling alined the other so Riza could see her own back without turning around. With a gentle hand, she tugged Riza's tank top down in the back.

Riza was shocked to see the scars. The largest was near her left shoulder, eliminating the bulk of the array tattooed on her skin. "What...what ha..." she couldn't believe she had endured such a large wound with no recolection.

"This alchemy caused a lot of suffering. You asked me to deface your markings," he chuckled, "screamed at me to do so in fact. You're a strong woman, you shouldn't be so scared. You trusted me before, I'm only asking you to do it again."

"...my...father...he's passed by now. How long?" she said in a monotone voice.

Roy looked to the ground, "...nine years."

"...That means...it's too late for tears," and she said nothing else for the rest of the day.

The others mourned their burnt bridge.