"I looked everywhere, but I still can't find her…" Mei announced as she made it back to their hideout.
Dolcetto gave her a pitying look. He was about to speak up when Yoki suddenly did. "Maybe she got eaten by a stray dog or something," he said with a shrug.
Mei clasped her hands to her mouth in horror. "E-eaten?!" she repeated. She then burst into tears.
Dolcetto glared at Yoki before stalking over to him and smacking him upside the head. "HEY!" the man cried, rubbing his head.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Dolcetto snapped at him, "Couldn't you see she was already upset?! Why on Earth would you say something like that?!"
"I was joking!" he shouted.
"WELL IT WASN'T FUNNY!" Dolcetto barked back, causing the man to flinch. He then walked back over to the crying girl and knelt down, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I bet Xiao Mei wasn't actually eaten. She's as tough as you are, right? I doubt anything would have the guts to snap her up," he assured. She looked up at him, tears finally stopping as she nodded. "Yeah, I bet she's jsut hiding out in a cardboard box somewhere waiting for ya," he said, "Don't worry. We'll find the little guinea pig."
"Panda," she clarified. Dolcetto raised an eyebrow. "She's a panda bear. Not a guinea pig," she explained, "But she got a disease when she was little that kept her from growing all the way. I found her after her mother had abandoned her and took her into nurse her back to health. She looked so lost and helpless. I suppose I was drawn to her because she was like me. We've been together ever since, even crossing the desert together."
Dolcetto raised an eyebrow. "You? Helpless? I doubt that," he said.
"It was a crazy endeavor anyways," Yoki scoffed, "There's no such thing as immortality."
Dolcetto glared at him again and growled. He was about to speak again when all of a sudden Mei stood up and did so for him. "There is! There has to be!" she shouted, hope burning in her eyes, "It's the only way to save my clan. It's one of the weakest of all the clans. If I don't bring the secret...It could disappear." Both Scar and Dolcetto gave her pitying looks.
All of a sudden the man stood up and walked over to the chimera. "Come on," he said, "We have a few hours of darkness left. We can spend that time looking for it."
"How will we do that?!" Yoki questioned, "It's too dark to see anything out there!"
"Dolcetto," Scar said, turning to the chimera, "How good is your sense of smell?"
"I can still smell the tea Sir Stuffy spilled on himself this morning," he said. Yoki blushed furiously.
Scar nodded. "Mei, do you have anything we can use to track her down?" he said.
"I have her brush!" the girl said, "It should still have her fur on it." She pulled it out and gave it to Dolcetto.
The man sniffed it. "Yeah, that will do," he said. He then sniffed the air before frowning. "We'll have to go back to the train yard though," he explained, "I ain't getting nothing around here."
Scar nodded. "Come on then," he said beckoning the chimera to follow him, "We'll have to move quickly to make sure no one spots us."
...
"God this is disgusting…." Rin complained as he continued to trudge through the blood, "My shoes are gonna smell like blood forever!"
"Preaching to the choir here, buddy," Bon responded trying not to look down at the liquid they were wading through, "Though I suppose we should be thankful we haven't come across any solid organs yet."
"Please don't make me think about that…" Rin said. They continued to walk in silence for a little while longer until they spotted something moving in the distance. Two silhouettes actually, and it looked like one was attacking the other. "Crap, is one of those Envy?" Rin said.
"I don't know, let's find out," Bon said before the two rushed forward. When they did they saw both Edward and Ling standing there, Edward huffing with an annoyed look on his face.
"Hey what's going on over there?" Bon demanded, as they got closer, catching the two boy's attention.
"Bon? Rin?" Ed said as they both turned towards them.
"Hey are you two alright?" Rin called, as they got closer.
"Wait, you're both Ling and Ed, Right?" Bon asked, as they got closer.
"Don't worry we are. We actually just got finished confirming that," Ling explained.
"You didn't have to be a jerk about it…" Ed grumbled.
"Thats what the fighting we saw earlier was about?" Bon questioned, surprised as they both nodded.
"You called him short, didn't you?" Rin said with a smirk, "Yeah, that's definitely Ed then."
Ed gritted his teeth in response before realization dawned on him. "Hey, what about you two?" he responded, "How do we know one of you isn't Envy?"
"Because when I met Ling he thought I was some kind of spirit and tried to give me chocolate as an offering and so I thought he was hitting on me," Rin said.
Ling looked horrified and embarrassed at the same time While Ed snickered at the memory and Bon gave a confused look.
"Did you really have to bring that one up?!" Ling snapped at him.
"Wait, why did you give him an offering of chocolate?" Bon questioned, "Who gives an offering of chocolate to a spirit?!"
Ling blushed furiously. "NOT IMPORTANT!" he shouted, "W-what about you, huh?! How do we know you're not Envy, huh?!"
Bon gave them a deadpan look before pulling his iphone out of his pocket and raising an eyebrow. "This enough proof for ya?" he asked.
Ling gave a confused look while Rin and Ed relaxed. "Yeah alright, you're Bon," Ed said.
Ling turned to him, even more perplexed. "Wait, how does that little thing prove he isn't a homunculus?" he questioned.
"It's a long story. You wouldn't understand," Ed said, "Let's just say that Envy has no idea that thing even exists, let alone that Bon has one. Now we need to work on trying to figure out where the hell we are and how to get out of here."
"Well we know for sure it's not actually hell cause we're all still alive and I'm not covered in blue flames," Rin said, "I guess that's a start, right?"
"I suppose so," Ed said.
"I think the answer's pretty obvious," Bon said, "Fatso sucked us up like a vacuum."
Ed gave an incredulous look before Ling spoke up. "It makes sense to me, a little anyways," he said. "You can see the part of the house he ripped up. All the fire probably came from the Colonel," Ling said pointing out things with his torch, "And I believe that car belongs to one of the officers." He said, pointing to the vehicle half sticking out of the pool of blood.
"How is that possible?" Ed questioned, "He isn't a demon so he can't bend the rules of time and space. How can all this fit inside him?"
"I have a few theories…" Bon said with a sigh before sitting down on a stone, "First is that inside gluttony is a black hole, though that looks a little unlikely now."
Ling and Ed gave confused look. "A black hole?" Ed repeated, "What's a black hole?"
Bon blinked in surprise. "You're shitting me…" he said with a baffled and annoyed expression, "You have no idea what a black hole is? What is wrong with you people?! Kids learn about that in first grade!"
"Uh dude," Rin said, "1914."
Bon face palmed before sighing. "Oh right, you people probably barely have airplanes let alone started sending things up to study space," he grumbled.
Both boys that were native to the timeline looked shocked. "Wait, what do you mean sent things up into space?!" Ling questioned, "What country are you people from?! Who has managed to send things into space?!"
"Seriously, you were able to do what in your world?!" Ed questioned, "Just how advanced is that place?!"
"Wait, did you say 'your world'?" Ling suddenly turned on Ed before turning back to Bon, "What the heck do you mean by 'your world'?!"
Rin and Bon exchanged looks before sighing. "Yeah, we...kinda come from a parallel world…" Rin explained, glancing at his feet and rubbing the back of his head. Bon raised an eyebrow at him. So he was from their world after all...Mephisto must have brought him here to hide him.
"We?" Ling questioned.
"Bon and I," Rin explained, "But I was taken here when I was seven to be saved from persecution due to my roots. Bon just showed up a few weeks ago."
"I guess no one has told you, but our world is a place where humans and demons exist in the same place, causing problems for each other and such. There's no alchemy or anything like that, but it runs a little under a hundred years ahead of your time, so we're pretty far ahead," Bon clarified, "And before you ask, no, I can't tell you what happens in the future because my world is completely different. There's no Amestris or Xing there and people were born here that apparently weren't born in your universe like Buddha or Albert Einstein." He then paused before thinking again. "Well, they could have and might have if this was truly a parallel universe, but if they were, they didn't end up achieving the same notoriety as they did in ours. "
"Alright…" Ling said processing this, "I think I understand…"
"So what's this black hole thing you were talking about?" Ed asked, getting them back on topic.
"Well, essentially a black hole is what happens when a really big star burns out, though some scientists have theories about how to make one otherwise. It expands and goes supernova before collapsing in on itself, but it just doesn't stop. It keeps collapsing and taking anything and everything with it until it's so densely packed that it can be the size a golf ball but have the weight of a planet," He explained. Ed and Ling marveled at this thought.
"Really?" Ed questioned, "That kind of thing exists?"
Bon nodded. "And the gravitational force it has means anything and everything that gets too close would get sucked inside. Not even light can escape it," he explained.
Ling and Ed frowned. "Wait a minute," Ling said, "Are you saying we're trapped here forever then?"
"If this really is a black hole, then yes, but I'm having doubts," he answered, scratching the side of his face, "I don't know if there are big differences in physics here, but if we were in our world, a black hole would have been too heavy for Ling to lift." "And even if it was some how contained within gluttony, we should be dead right now," he explained, "if we weren't torn apart molecule by molecule getting sucked into a black hole, we should have been crushed by the gravitational force the minute we ended up inside it. So that answer is looking a little flimsy at the moment."
Ling and Rin breathed a sigh of relief, while Ed just looked angry. "THEN WHY DID YOU TELL US ABOUT IT?!" he snapped, "For a moment I thought we were going to be stuck here forever!"
"Because, like I said, I have no idea how the physics of this world works!" Bon snapped back, "You people have an entire field of science that doesn't exist in this world! Artificial humans don't exist in our world and there isn't a known way to have a tangible form of energy like a philosopher's stone. You can't make chimeras by combining two animals either without them dying! For all I know, Newton's laws have twenty different exceptions and atoms follow the plum pudding model instead of the orbital model!" Rin blinked at him in confusion, as did Ling. He sighed. "Don't ask…" he said, rubbing his left temple, "And besides, the other theory I have may not even be real." "Gluttony could have the entrance to a worm hole inside him, and we just got sucked through and spat out on the other side of the universe or something," he said, "But I have no idea if wormholes are even a real thing or just a work of fiction."
"Well, to be honest, I much prefer your wormhole theory," Ed said, "Do you think if we searched long enough, we might be able to find the wormhole entrance again?"
"It's possible," Bon said with a shrug.
"Alright, then let's get moving," Edward responded, beginning to walk away, "The sooner we can find a way out of here, the better."
Rin, Bon, and Ling complied. They began looking around trying to find some kind of exit. They searched high and low, desperately trying to find anyway out. They tried making a pillar to reach upwards, making a hole, running to find a wall of some kind, anything. Yet somehow they ended up back where they started.
"You're kidding me…" Rin said as he saw the car and the side of the house, "This is the third time we passed that!"
"How are we going in circles?!" Ling cried, "We ran straight!"
"Beats me," Bon said, "I feel like we're stuck in a horror movie…" Bon grumbled, waving his torch around. All of a sudden he saw something reflect the torchlight. He raised an eyebrow before running over to see what it was. However, he regretted it when he found out the truth. He nearly gagged as he saw part of Alphonse's suit arm lying on the ground. He had to keep himself from retching awful that must have been for the boy. He was out there, all alone with half his arm gone, probably bleeding out. He dared not pick it up to see what remained inside.
"Bon?" Edward called, "Bon what is it? What did you find?" The blond boy began running up to him.
Bon's mouth opened and closed as he looked from the severed arm to the brother. "...I-I...I don't think you want to know," he admitted quietly, blocking it from Ed's view. Fear pricked in Ed's heart for a moment. What did he mean by that? What could have happened that was too horrible for him to see?
"What are you talking about, let me see!" he demanded, fighting to shove the boy out of the way. Bon tried to stop him, but the short alchemist was quickly able to force him aside.
"Ed stop!" Bon cried, trying to reach out to stop him. However, it was too late as the teen had already knelt down and picked up the severed arm. Bon bit his lip as the others ran up behind him.
"What's wrong?" Rin asked as he and Ling sloshed through the blood over to them.
"I found Alphonse's arm…" Bon admitted, "I..it must have gotten torn off in the process of trying to grab one of us, Ed I'm sor-" He stopped as he glanced over to the older brother and noticed that for some reason, the boy was SMILING! Bon blinked in surprise. "Thank goodness, that means he's alright…" Ed sighed in relief.
Bon's jaw dropped. "Alright?! Alright?!" he cried, "HIS ARM'S BEEN TORN CLEAN OFF! HE'S PROBABLY BLEEDING OUT RIGHT NOW, HOW CAN HE BE ALRIGHT?!"
Edward, Rin, and Ling all froze as they realized that Bon was still unaware of Al's situation. They exchanged looks. Well. This was going to be an interesting discussion…
"Uh...Well, you see…" Rin started, scratching the back of his head, "He kinda...doesn't have a body…"
Bon blinked at him for a moment, processing what he just said. "I'm sorry, what," he said in a deadpan voice. He hadn't thought anything more could surprise him that day, but he found that he was completely wrong. "What do you mean he doesn't have a body?" Bon questioned in disbelief, voice slowly becoming angrier, "I've seen him with my own eyes! The armor can move around just as well as any person! How does he not have a body?!"
Ed sighed before showing him the inside of the armor arm. "Because there was never anything inside," he admitted, "His soul is bonded to the suit of armor."
Bon gaped. "You're telling me your brother is a ghost?" he questioned.
"No!" Ed snapped before rethinking, "Well...sort of. He didn't die. You can't bring a soul back from the dead."
"How?!" Bon questioned, anger clear in his voice, "How is that even possible?! How does one's soul just get stuck to a suit of armor?! Is there some mad man going sticking people's souls to metal? Who in his right mind would do that to a kid?!"
"Well kinda…" Rin muttered, though too quietly to hear.
Ed looked down. "...I did it," he admitted, "I bonded his soul the suit."
Bon stared at him in disbelief and shock. His mind was blank as he was once again affronted by this new information. His own brother. He did this to her own brother…It made him sick. "Why?" he questioned, fist shaking, "Just why? Why would you do that to him?! What is wrong with you?!"
"I did it to save his life!" Ed shouted back. He glared at Bon before his eyes became weary and he slumped to the ground. "It was all I could do...I couldn't think of anything else…" he admitted, "He was all I had left. I couldn't lose him too."
The void fell silent between the four teenage boys. Bon bit his lip a little. He didn't know how to respond to that. He had no idea how desperate the situation had been, but it must have been horrible if it caused him to take his soul out of his body. However the thought still terrified him. Knowing that someone was able to do that...a teenage boy no less...it was horrifying. Granted, it had already been explained to him what a philosopher's stone was back at the hideout, that humans had to be sacrificed to make one. That thought alone was going to plague his mind for a long time. But there was one that was far more prominent at the moment.
"What happened?" he asked. Rin winced And Ed looked up at him from where he was sitting on the ground. He stared at him for a long while, contemplating whether to tell him or not before giving in and doing so.
"Alright," he said, "I suppose there's no point in keeping it secret anymore...When we were kids we made a very stupid mistake. We...attempted human transmutation."
Bon looked confused while Ling raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, isn't that what's used to bring back dead people?" Ling asked.
Bon suddenly turned to Ling in alarm before looking back towards Ed. "Wait, are you saying you performed necromancy?!" he questioned.
"No!" Ed cried in offence, "Alchemy isn't magic, and you can't actually bring back the dead with it…" He then sighed. "But...we did try," he said, "We tried to bring back our mother. She had died a few years before and we couldn't handle it. We thought we could play god, but we were wrong…" "In trying to bring her back, we opened up the gate of truth," he continued before glaring at the ground, "But the white bastard doesn't like anyone stepping onto his territory, and so we paid a price for what we did." "I lost my leg," Ed said lifting his metal leg, "and Al...Well, Truth decided to take his whole body."
Bon swallowed as he felt his stomach sink at those words. "B-but what happened then? If he took his body, how were you able to attach his soul to a suit of armor?" He dared to ask.
"I used my blood to draw a seal on the suit and reopened the gate," he explained, "I ended up giving my arm to get him back, and every day since I've been working to get him back to the way he was."
"Oh…" the teenager said. He didn't know what else to say. He felt humbled by his presence. The boy had been through hell and back for his brother. Sure he messed up horribly. He had messed up probably worse than anyone he had ever known. It was hard not to feel some respect for what he had done to repent.
Ling frowned in pity for the alchemist. He had been told Alphonse was a soul attached to a suit of armor and that his brother was the one whom had sealed him to the armor to save him...but he hadn't know what else had happened.
"I'm sorry," Bon said, looking away, finally breaking the silence, "For...what happened to you."
Edward shrugged. "You have nothing to be sorry about. It was my own dumb mistake and I'm the one who's going to fix it now," he said before getting up and taking the arm with him, "Now let's get back to finding a way out of here so I can do just that." Bon and Rin nodded before heading out after back into the blood. Ling got up and headed after them but after a few minutes became more and more sluggish. Finally he collapsed. The three teenagers turned to him in alarm.
"Ling?" Rin called, "Ling, what's wrong?"
"Is he sick? Injured? What happened?" Bon questioned
"I-I don't think I can keep moving," Ling admitted, "I'm starving…"
Bon looked confused while Ed gave an exasperated expression. "Not this again…" Ed growled, "Come on Ling, get up!"
"Wait is this a common thing?" Bon asked, turning to Ed and Rin.
Rin shrugged but Ed nodded. "Ling stop messing around! We have to get out of here!" He said, "Don't make us leave you behind!"
Ling looked up at him for a moment, trying to move but couldn't. "Just go…" he said in defeat, "I don't have the energy to even get back up. I'm only going to drag you down."
Rin and Bon exchanged worried looks. "Come on Ling!" Rin called, "We have to keep moving. Don't you want to see Lan Fan again?" Ling frowned sadly but didn't respond.
Bon growled. "Seriously, man," he snapped, "You didn't get this far just to give up now did you?" Once again they received no response. Ed grimaced before huffing and marching over to the teenage prince. Ling looked surprise as the other boy slung his arm over his shoulder.
"Hey guys!" Ed called back, "I could use an hand over here!" Rin blinked before nodding and handing the torch to Bon before going over to help Ling up.
"What...are you doing?" Ling questioned.
"We've got people waiting for us out there, and so do you," Ed said, "You don't want to disappoint them now do you?"
Ling smiled at him as the pair helped him walk. "Thank you. Both of you," he then chuckled, "And here I thought you were still holding a grudge over me!"
Ed smirked. "Oh don't worry, I fully intend on making you pay for the whole dinner fiasco in Rush Valley."
Ling smiled. "Knew it…" he muttered. The group traveled a little ways farther before they reached another slab of land they could rest on. It was part of an old building, with a room still intact. "We should stop for now," Bon said, "We're gonna need to keep our strength up. If there's anything else alive in here, it's probably desperate enough to try and make a meal out of us."
"Fair enough," Ed said setting Ling down. He collapsed in a heap beside him as did Rin.
"I really hate this place…"Rin said, "Are you sure it isn't hell? It sure feels like it…"
"I feel like there would be a lot more demons and screams of suffering if it were really hell, so the answer is still no," Bon said.
"Maybe its a personal hell," Rin retorted.
"Well that would explain why you're here," Bon joked.
"HEY!" Rin shouted back, frowning. Their little argument was cut off however by a loud stomach growl.
"We know Ling, you're hungry," Ed huffed.
"Actually, that was me…" Rin admitted sheepishly. His stomach growled again for emphasis.
"Yeah, I'm actually pretty hungry too…" Bon agreed, scratching the back of his head. Ed put a hand to his own stomach as he suddenly became aware of the gnawing empty feeling in it. He bit his lip as he tried to think of what to do.
"Man...I wish I had brought something with me…" Rin said, "What are we going to do for food? We aren't gonna last long without it."
"Unless you're fine with drinking human blood, which I hope to God you aren't, I don't think there's anything we can eat," Bon said.
"Oh hell no!" Rin cried in offence, "What are you, crazy? No way am I doing that! That's disgusting! I maybe half demon, but I still have human standards."
"Well that's certainly a relief," Bon huffed in response.
"Hey wait," Ed said taking off his shoes and pour out all the liquid, "Leather goods are edible." he suggested.
Never in his life did Bon think he would be offered a shoe as food, or that he'd be at a point he'd be happy to do so. "Well it's not the strangest thing we could be eating," he noted.
"Thank god you wear leather boots…" Rin breathed.
Ed transmuted a pot before setting up an fire and getting some water. Rin, Bon, and Ling watched from the sidelines as he worked. All of a sudden, Ed turned on Rin. "Think you can do the honors?" he said, offering him the boots.
Rin blinked in surprise. "Wait what?" he balked, "Why are you asking me?! I don't know how to cook a shoe!"
"I'd figure you'd know better than me considering you're the only one of us who's a decent cook!" Ed argued back shoving them in Rin's chest.
"Yeah, with real food! Not footwear!" Rin retorted pushing them back, "There aren't any recipe books for stewed shoe, you know! Besides, you're the one who survived on an island for a month. You should know how to make things like this edible more than me!"
"Are you kidding me? Half the stuff we survived off of was charred meat and raw ingredients!" Ed admitted, "I'm not asking for a gourmet dinner, I just want it to be soft enough to actually be able to chew and swallow! You managed to make spaghetti in a coffee pot before and a grilled cheese with an iron and ironing board. I think you can handle softening a shoe."
"I DON'T HAVE ANY INGREDIENTS ASSHAT!" Rin shouted back.
"WILL SOMEONE JUST SHUT UP AND COOK THEM ALREADY?!" Bon finally interrupted, "Seriously, it's not going to get done at all if you keep fighting."
Rin frowned but took the shoes. "Fine…" he grumbled, "But Ed has to help me try to tenderize it. And if this bombs none of you can complain!"
…
The three other boys sat around the fire, waiting for the food to be done. Ed had transmitted them some more water from he could gather from the particles in the air so they could keep hydrated. They were all very quiet, still trying to recharge from the fight and after trudging through the red liquid.
Bon glanced over to Ed who was messing with the metal arm still in his hands. He seemed to be staring at it intently, as if something was bothering him. "Hey," he said, "You alright?"
Ed nodded. "Just worried about Alphonse…" he explained, "I'm glad he's safe, but he's got to be freaking out right now…" He frowned at the metal arm. "I just wish there was some way to contact him…." he muttered before his eyes lit up slightly. Bon gave a confused look as he suddenly got on his knees and held the arm above his head.
"AaaaaaAAAHHHH!" he cried, swinging it over his head, "CONVENIENTLY AWAKEN TELEPATHIC POWERS! ELRIC BROTHER TELEPATHYYYYYYY!"
Bon and Ling. Both stared him in utter shock and confusion before looking at each other. Ling mouthed "what the-?"at him questioningly while pointing to the golden haired boy and his strange display. Bon on the other hand felt perfectly comfortable voicing his thoughts. "What the crap are you doing?!" he questioned, cutting Ed off, "Has being in here for such a short time really driven you insane already?"
Ed stopped his strange movements. "No…" he said, "It's just...I thought…" "Ok this is really complicated," he said with a sigh, "But I discovered that due to our mistake in opening the gate, we sort of...bonded our souls together. I thought maybe I might be able to communicate with him through that bond. You know that whole concept of sibling telepathy, right?"
"Sibling telepathy is just a myth," Bon argued, "Soul bonding or otherwise."
"No way! It's totally real! That's just not how sibling telepathy works," Rin said, walking up to them with bowls of shoe soup, "first off, you have to be twins. Secondly, it's not like talking on a phone. It only work in two ways: One, when I get in trouble and Yukio always seems to know…"
…
Yukio sat in his chair, staring down at the paper in front of him, contemplating what he was going to do. He suddenly hissed as he felt a throbbing sensation in the back of his head. Yukio blinked before sighing and resting his head in his hands. He really hoped this really was just a random headache and not a sign that Rin had gotten into trouble again. He didn't know if he could take any more stress.
...
"And two, when Yukio gets a cold I always start sniffing," he finished.
"Oh really?" Bon said dryly as he took his bowl from him, "You sure that's not just a coincidence?"
"Dude, it happened even when he was in Xing," Rin said, "I'd start sniffling and then all of a sudden we'd get a call from him where he'd say that he had gotten the flu or something…"
"I don't suppose this trouble detection powers of his will let him know where you are so he can come find us," Ling said as he began eating his piece of shoe. It was tasteless, but at least it wasn't too chewy…
"Sorry. 'Fraid not," Rin said with an apoplectic shrug.
"Great…" Ed sighed as he ate. As he was finishing, he leaned back onto the ground, "Well, since no one is going to be coming for us for a while we should probably try to get some sleep…"
Bon glances at the portion of the building next to them. "Think there might be something in there we can use?" he asked, "Like drapes or something?"
"I can go check," Rin said leaving his empty bowl behind as ran up to the building. Ling watched him run inside before looking back down at his bowl, realizing there was nothing left. "I don't suppose there's any more, is there?" He asked.
Bon raised an eyebrow at him. "You seriously want MORE?" he said, "Don't tell me you actually enjoyed it! What are you, a goat?"
Ling frowned at him. "Of course not! It was disgusting," he responded, "But I'm still hungry, and if we're going to be stuck in here for a while I'm going to need to keep my strength up for as long as possible so I don't end up like before."
"Yeah, by the way, what was the deal with that?" Ed questioned, "The first time that happened you might have been faking, but this time you actually passed out. Why is that?"
Ling looked away in embarrassment. "It's...a medical issue…" he explained scratching his chin, "It's been a noticeable problem in the last three generations of my family or so. Many of my siblings and I have extremely high metabolisms so we end up completely collapsing if we go more than a few hours without eating, though my case is particularly bad…"
"Wait, so you didn't fake passing out on the side of the road? You were actually passed out?" Ed questioned in surprise.
"Can we please talk about something else?" Ling interjected, avoiding the question.
"Hey guys…" Rin called from inside the building, "I think I found something." He stepped out. He was frowning as he showed them a long piece of cloth with a familiar pattern on it of red stripes.
"That's Ishvalan, isn't it?" Ling said.
"Yeah," Ed noted bitterly, "Well isn't this just a lovely reminder. We're camping out on the remains of a battlefield…" He glared at the ground. This probably meant this Gluttony guy had been allowed to pick over the dead and eat whatever he wanted during the war. The thought both sickened him and filled him with rage.
"What do you mean battlefield?" Bon questioned, "Why does that pattern mean this is a battlefield?"
Ed and Rin blinked in surprise. "Wait, you didn't tell him about Ishval?" Rin questioned.
"I didn't realize how important it would be in the future," Ed responded, "And it's not a subject that can be integrated into a conversation easily if you haven't realized."
"Will someone please explain what you're talking about?" Bon asked.
Rin and Ed glance at each other. "Well, he's got as much of a right to know as either of us," Rin said with a shrug.
"Alright," Ed responded, "a little over a decade ago, Amestris annexed a nation called Ishval…"
….
Shura, Alphonse, and gluttony were staring over the cliff edge at the city in the distance. The couldn't take Shura's canvas back truck as Gluttony could not fit in the front seat. So they were traveling by foot. As sunlight reach over the horizon, they found out they were heading in the direction of back toward Central.
"Your father lives in Central?" Alphonse questioned.
"Yup!" The chubby homunculus responded.
"...Why was I expecting anything different…" Shura groaned, running a hand through her hair. Great. So the evil had been under their feet all along...well she supposed he could be standing above them, but whatever. She didn't have time to contemplate this subject as she was suddenly tugged along by the portly homunculi.
"HEY!" she snapped, "Slow down, tubs! I'm not gonna let you hold on to me if you're gonna drag me around like that!"
"Oops!" Gluttony responded, stopping and putting a finger in his mouth, "Ok then. We can walk slower." With that they began moving at more leisurely pace. Still, that didn't ease either the exoricst's nerves nor suit of armor's as they steadily got closer to meeting the one known as "Father".
Well this took way longer than expected...Sorry. I wanted to have this done by the end of spring break, but I got distracted by some other AUs I've been working on like my Big Brother William AU and my Guard Dog AU which I've been posting stories for. The next few weeks I hope I can find time to work on this, but if not, I apologize. Thanks again for all of your support i really appreciate it! Have a nice day, and please let me know what you think!
