29. Impasse.

T: Teeny cliff-hanger, though It's not too bad! Other than this the warnings and the disclaimer remain the same.

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The sun feels warm on his skin despite the chill in the air and he allows himself a moment to simply bathe in the tranquillity of the moment before turning to Rose and saying,

"You should be able to get to another town from here."

"What about you?"

"I've got to capture Scar; turning him over to the military is the only way to assure an end to this 'conflict'."

"Are you certain that that is the only solution?" Rose enquires.

"I suppose I could talk to the colonel…broker some form of a deal…I'm not much of a negotiator though so I can't promise much."

Rose smiles then, the thing beautiful despite its fragility and he informs her,

"You'd better get going."

"Goodbye, Edward." She remarks before she pulls her child tight to her and joins the other refugees.

He is running back to the temporary headquarters when he spots the line of tanks and, fear blooming in his stomach, he picks up his pace.

He is unsurprised to find Archer at the head of the 'army', though the other is clearly taken aback by his return.

"There's no need for this, the citizens have fled the town and only Scar remains inside."

"Clearly they have pressed you into telling this lie." Archer responds before informing him, "We discovered the body of the crimson alchemist upon the border a few moments previous, this item clutched within his fingers." The other holds up a familiar locket and, snatching it from him, he says,

"This is Scar's."

"Is that so? Surely this is the sort of thing that any individual within this town could have owned."

"You're using Kimberly's death as an excuse to charge the town, aren't you? I'm all for you running in there in order to gain glory for yourself, but it sickens me that you're expecting others to join you in that pursuit."

Archer is about to retort when a solider steps between them and, in an enthused whisper, remarks,

"We have spotted Scar."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"Sir!" The guard falls into a smart salute and, seeing his eagerness, seeing his youth clear in the brightness of his eyes he is driven to remark,

"You are walking into a trap, major."

"Restrain him." Archer remarks as he joins the throng of men pressing towards Liore.

An instant later the sky is ablaze with the light of a transmutation and, pocketing Scar's locket, he creates a wall of sand between what remains of the army and the city.

He drops this shield once he assured that there is no more risk and, in doing as such, he is greeted with the sight of what Liore has become, with the sight of endless desert where there had once been a bustling city.

He makes his way into that wilderness, his voice raised up in search for Scar. Eventually this search gains a reply but not, as he had expected, in Scar's calm tone but rather in his brother's voice.

"Al?"

"I'm here, 'niichan."

Digging frantically in the sand he is greeted, eventually, with the familiar countenance of his brother's armour.

"Why are you here?"

"The colonel wished me to find you…to bring you back, but then I found Scar-san and Kimberly transmuted the armour into a bomb and somehow sealed my soul at the same time and Scar-san said that he was going to change my body into the stone to stop me from blowing up."

"Calm down, Al." Only once he is assured that his brother has taken on this instruction does he say, "Open out your chest plate."

Al does as instructed and, rather than exposing a hollow mettle shell, the action exposes a deep red light.

"What is this, niichan?"

"But a little before I found you there was a transmutation light over Liore. It seems that Scar created a stone but not within himself as he had first thought to."

"I agree with that analysis, Edward Elric." This last is Lust and, reflexively, he reaches into his pocket for the locket. "It seems your brother has been turned into the stone and yet such 'salvation comes at a price, for he shall find himself unable still to lease the connection to the armour."

Al tenses and he knows that the other is attempting to go back to his original body, attempting to prove the other wrong. After a moment the armour slumps into a dejected pose and he knows that Lust had been correct, knows that Al is indeed trapped within the armour.

"Why the hell would Scar do something like this and why the well would the presence of the stone stop him from going back?"

Lust does not answer these enquires but instead says,

"Run while you have the chance, Edward. Now that you have the stone everyone shall be pursuing you."

"Why are you doing this? Didn't you want the stone for yourself?" Again she gives him no reply, this time choosing to simply walk away rather than add to his confusion.

"What do we do now, 'niichan?"

"I do not know…I'm afraid that she's right in saying that they'll chase us now and it seems we can't rely on anyone other than ourselves."

"What about the colonel?"

"If it were any other matter I would involve him without thought."

"Then what makes this matter any different?"

"He cannot protect us without risking himself, Al, or everything that he has worked so hard to achieve, thus it is better that we do not involve him at all."

"I see." There is a touch of pride in his brother's voice, the harmonic warming his stomach and chasing away a little of the fear that had begun to consume him.

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T: Next chapter tomorrow. Review?