Chapter 36 –

"I knew those front gate guards snitched on me," Ed muttered when he spotted Mustang waiting in Grumman's outer office with Samantha watching him from her peripheral vision.

"Sorry, Ed," Samantha said before Mustang could say anything. The look she gave Mustang as he closed his mouth told Ed that it wasn't an accident that she'd done so. "Fuhrer Grumman asked them to alert General Mustang and pass on the order for him to be here by the time you arrived once they spotted you entering the base," she explained.

"I'd be madder if I hadn't expected something like this to happen," Ed told her, humour flickering in his eyes. "Anyways, I'd like to introduce you to Princess Allura of Altea, who arrived this morning to help her team back home," Ed said, gesturing for Allura – who'd been in between the members of Voltron and a little out of sight – forward. "Princess, this is Samantha Mercier," Ed said, introducing Samantha to Allura properly. As Allura had promised, her pink markings sitting just under the corners of her eyes were gone and her ears were shaped more like Ed's and the Paladins' were.

"It's wonderful to meet you," Samantha said, standing up from behind her desk so she could stretch her hand out over it for Allura to shake.

"The same for me," Allura said, shaking Samantha's hand before she let go of it in favour of glancing at Mustang. "It's good to see you looking so well, General Mustang. Thank you for helping Edward look after Voltron while they were stuck here," she said as she held her hand out for Mustang.

If Mustang noticed the changed to Allura's appearance, he didn't say anything as he grasped her hand. "It was much easier than I'd anticipated it would be to keep all of them in one piece, especially with Lotor on the loose and Fullmetal involved in trying to capture him," Mustang told her, eyes sparkling with amusement at the sound of Ed's annoyed snarl.

"Yes, I too was surprised at the report I was given," Allura said as Mustang released her hand. "Truthfully, I'd thought that Lotor would've proven much more challenging than he had and that I'd be getting reports of injury upon injury in regard to everyone involved in the apprehension of the war criminal," Allura admitted. "To hear that the worst injury was a bruise or two was a massive relief," she told them.

"Well, we were certainly happy that none of them needed a medical file open on them and that Fullmetal hadn't needed his added to," Mustang told her.

"They probably would've needed to start a new file if I had been hospitalised," Ed said casually. "I'm pretty sure I heard one of the nurses say that to Doc Evans when I left the hospital last time," he added.

Though it was clear a few people wanted to, no one made any sort of response to that comment, other than an unsurprised sigh or frown of concern. Mustang decided that – if he was reading his captain's warning look correctly – a change of subject was needed. "I heard you were looking after Elysia today. Where is she?" he asked, choosing a safer subject to switch to.

"Havoc, Falman, Breda, and Fuery have all promised to keep an eye on her. She's in your office with my tablet right now," Ed told him and Mustang nodded even as he mentally went over how he'd left his office and fervently hoped that he'd left nothing out in Elysia's reach that he wouldn't want her reading or touching. "She's already promised not to touch anything," Ed said, easing Mustang's obvious worry.

Mustang gave a small sigh. "That's good to know," he admitted. "I don't think I would've wanted to explain to Gracia how her daughter got a hold of confidential files," he said with a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I absolutely would've thrown you to the wolves if that happened," Ed divulged without any shame or obvious guilt. Mustang couldn't even pretend to be offended since he probably would've done the same had their roles been reversed in this hypothetical scenario. There was a lot he would've protected Ed from, even if it meant he took the brunt of whatever was thrown at the blonde but an angry and protective Gracia was not one of those things.

Samantha seemed a little thrown by the conversation, as did Allura, but the secretary decided it was probably time for this conversation to come to a close before they wasted more of Grumman's valuable and rare free time. "His Excellency instructed me to let you through as soon as all of you were present," Samantha said, getting their attention. "I'll show you through now, if that's alright with you?" she asked but all of them knew they really weren't being given a choice. They'd go into Grumman's inner office now or not at all.

"Of course. Thank you, Samantha," Mustang said, his professional mask immediately back in place as he straightened his military jacket slightly.

Samantha didn't say anything in response as she rounded her desk but she did nod to acknowledge she had heard him. Three short, sharp raps of her knuckles against the wood of the inner office doors had Grumman's muffled permission to enter sound and Samantha opened the doors. "General Mustang, Lieutenant-Colonel Elric, and the others are here to see you, Sir," Samantha said as she stood to the side to allow them to walk into the office without running her over.

"Thank you, Samantha," Grumman said as he rose from his seat, eyes on the one person in the room he didn't know: Allura. "You may return to your duties," he told her in a clear but polite dismissal as he waved off the salutes he'd gotten from the soldiers in the group in front of him.

Samantha nodded before she turned on her heel and pulled the door shut behind her as she headed back for her desk. Ed heard the soft click that told them that the door was firmly closed before he heard Mustang take charge with the introductions. "Fuhrer Grumman, this is Princess Allura of Altea, the leader of Voltron's home country," Mustang said before his attention flicked to Allura. "Princess Allura, this is Fuhrer Grumman, Amestris' leader," Mustang said, finishing with the quick introductions.

"It is an honour to meet you, Fuhrer Grumman. Please accept my sincerest gratitude for everything you've done for my team while they've been in your country's care and please accept my sincerest apologies for anything Lotor did while he was here after he managed to escape our custody," Allura said immediately. "If Lotor or my team have damaged anything during their time here and you would like for us to pay for it, please let us discuss how Altea may repay you," Allura said.

"It is an honour to meet you as well, Princess Allura," Grumman said as he gestured for her to take one of the seats in front of his desk, which she did. Mustang – after a silent discussion with Shiro – took the other while Grumman took his own seat. "It was our pleasure to host Voltron and to aid them in capturing the escaped criminal, Lotor. Though your gratitude is appreciated, it is unnecessary as we only did what I would hope any other country would do for any of our citizens if they had wound up on their land unexpectedly and with no sure way home. As for damages, there were none of any significance," Grumman told her. "In fact, we owe Voltron and Lotor a debt for exposing the true characters of two generals whose loyalty to Amestris was already in question," Grumman divulged. "Making sure they were comfortable and didn't have anything other than figuring out a way home during their time here was the least we could do."

"I am please to hear that they were able to assist your country in exposing those generals and that they didn't cause any significant damage," Allura said, certainly looking relieved and Ed wondered if that was how Mustang felt whenever he got the rare reports of him post-mission that said he hadn't caused any damage during his time in the area. "Now, everyone was able to bring me up to speed during our journey into Central after I arrived," Allura told Grumman, "and Edward told me that it was suggested that I instruct Pidge to gift your country some blueprints as repayment for allowing them the freedom and assistance they needed to hunt Lotor down. Is this something you think would be enough to placate your generals or do you believe they would need something more?" she asked him, getting straight to the point.

Grumman considered her question. "I believe that it should be enough for the moment," Grumman eventually told her. "Though we have to come up with some sort of system so that you can send us requests if anyone should want to visit Amestris again in the future. That way, the generals' worries about you opening portals whenever you wanted may be soothed a little more," Grumman reasoned.

Allura frowned slightly. "Do you plan on making Edward's tablet known to the public? Or even just those in the military?" she asked.

Grumman's eyes widened slightly in surprise before he glanced at Mustang and Ed. "We hadn't discussed that possibility. To be honest, I don't think any of us had even considered it," he admitted. "What are your opinions?" he asked the two alchemists.

Ed hesitated for a moment as he thought it over. "I don't like that idea," Ed admitted. "Our scientists will want to look it over and take it apart to see how it works and to make sure it's not going to be used against us or whatever other stupid thought gets in their minds over it and they'll accidentally destroy it," Ed said, feeling a little bit silly about how protective he was feeling over his tablet.

"I could order them to leave it alone," Grumman offered kindly.

"I appreciate that but you know as well as I do that if someone really wanted to get their hands on it, your orders won't stop them," Ed pointed out. "I don't want to risk someone that eager to get a hold of it trying to do so while Miss Gracia and Elysia are home by themselves," he added.

Grumman nodded once before he turned back to Allura. "No, we won't be making anyone who doesn't already know of the tablet aware of its existence," Grumman told her and Ed gave a small sigh of relief.

Allura didn't look surprised by the answer. "In that case, my suggestion of sending our requests to it is no longer a viable option," she said. "Using the portal to send notes through also isn't an option. For one, I can't pinpoint where the portal would open when the Lions aren't on this side of it. That's the only reason the portal opened where it did and on ground level when I arrived," she explained. "The other reason the portal is out is because it requires too much energy from me and from the material we had to get for it. With how rare that material was and how protective the natives of the planet the material is from was of it, I would prefer to only use the portal when necessary," Allura said firmly.

"I understand," Grumman said with a quick but kind smile. "I would suggest that we use Edward as a messenger of sorts but we've kept the Lions' telepathic abilities quiet and I would much rather keep that under wraps, if only so we don't end up having the same problems we'd face with Edward's tablet being known," Grumman said.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate not being kidnapped and studied for mine and the Lions' bonds," Ed said casually. "I've managed to break my record of time between kidnappings – alchemic gods who are also massive dicks notwithstanding – and I'd really like to not have to restart that clock," he added.

"We would come to your rescue if that happened," Black said immediately.

"And we'd take care of whoever was left after you were done with them," Red added, sounding almost keen for the prospect.

"That is very sweet of you," Ed told them.

"You know we'd come and help them take on anyone who was left able to move after you'd had your turn as well, right?" Lance asked, telling Ed that the Lions had told their humans what the conversation was about.

"Of course I do and I would do the same for you lot as well," Ed told them, earning himself five grins and accompanying nudges to the shoulder or hands ruffling his hair.

Grumman gave them an indulgent smile that lasted a couple of moments before he continued speaking as though there hadn't been an interruption. "What kind of blueprints do you plan on gifting Amestris?" he asked Pidge.

"I was going to give you guys blueprints to upgrade things like your electrical systems, rudimentary cell phone towers that could help your scientists come up with something similar to cell phones, some appliances were going to be included and a few other small things that I think would be helpful for Amestris but wouldn't be too advanced that you guys couldn't utilise them for several years but also can't be used as weapons," Pidge told him, completely honest and with no hesitation.

Grumman nodded. "So, would a rudimentary tablet be too advanced for us?" he asked her and Pidge nodded.

"Yes," she said immediately. "Tablets on our Earth weren't created for another 80 years or so from when our world and yours were technologically similar," she told him. "Truthfully, I wouldn't be giving you the cell phone towers if your radio systems weren't as good as they are since we didn't develop them until the late 70's," Pidge admitted. "You guys still need to invent computers before you get to tablets," she told him. "I'll give you some help in that area but I'm not gonna spoon-feed your scientists everything. You guys won't learn anything if you don't have to work at least a little bit for it," Pidge informed Grumman.

"I can appreciate that stance," Grumman said, dipping his head to her, "and we are thankful for whatever you're willing to share with us," he assured her, making sure she knew he wasn't going to demand that she give Amestris everything. "Though now my suggestion that we make a tablet of our own so we could communicate with you is also no longer an option," Grumman said, a touch ruefully. "Perhaps we could simply create dates where you can pay us a visit. If, for whatever reason, you cannot pay a visit on a certain date, we'll simply leave it that you explain why on the next set date? Or give us a believable version of why you couldn't make the last visit," Grumman suggested.

"That certainly is a possibility but what if a date becomes unsuitable for you?" Allura asked. "How would you contact us to let us know that a visit would not be possible?" she queried before she seemed to realise her wording. "Or, I suppose I should ask, how would you claim you contacted us?" she clarified.

Grumman seemed mildly stumped by her question. It was Hawkeye who came up with the next idea. "Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep the means of our communications simple," Hawkeye said. "As Voltron appeared near Ishval and I'm assuming they will go home from the same area," she said, looking at Ed and Shiro mainly, both of whom shrugged or nodded, "we could speak with a trusted ally in Ishval and see if they would be willing to act as messenger for Amestris and Altea," Hawkeye suggested.

"You're talking about asking Scar to be that messenger," Ed said, immediately catching on to Hawkeye's meaning.

The blonde captain gave him a nod before she continued. "Of course, there would be no messages for them to actually pass on but perhaps Edward could ask Scar to act as our messenger. Scar wouldn't have to do anything since Edward would be the one to speak with the Lions or someone on the Castle-Ship directly but they could claim that they passed along the message in one of their letters to each other," she said, explaining her idea further. "The only thing that we would have to figure out if we go with this idea is how Scar would receive the message from Voltron," Hawkeye said.

"I believe that's probably the best idea any of us will be able to come up with," Grumman said, looking at Allura for her opinion.

"I agree," Allura said promptly. "As for the last bit needing puzzling out, may I suggest that we ask Mr. Scar to act as though I've requested that he keeps how he receives messages from me a secret?" she asked.

"I'm not sure that would be the best path to take," Grumman said, sounding mildly apologetic for doing so. "Amestris and Ishval have only been getting along as well as we are for a year. I'm afraid that if we said that you were asking an Ishvalan citizen to keep a secret from us, it would sour not only our relationship with you but with Ishval as well," Grumman explained. Allura looked disappointed but didn't push the idea.

After a couple of seconds, Mustang seemed to almost jolt with an idea. "We could say that Scar and an Altean messenger use a drop system to communicate," Mustang said. "It's something I know Investigations does with some of their confidential informants," he told them. "We could ask Scar to set up an area on the border of Ishval on the other side of the Great Eastern Desert and to travel out every month or fortnight or however long. Fullmetal could offer to go with him when he sets this area up so it can be alchemically trapped, ensuring no one would be able to sneak onto it and discover the ruse," Mustang continued. "If someone tries to confront Scar on his way back from a visit, we could ask him to claim that there was no note or that he'd destroyed it so no one else could read it," Mustang suggested.

"I mean, it's not a completely stupid idea," Ed said, earning himself a glare from Mustang and several amused huffs or grins from those around them. "However, this whole idea rests on Scar being willing to do this," Ed pointed out.

"Do you think there's a chance he wouldn't?" Grumman asked and Ed shrugged a shoulder.

"He's one of the Elders," Ed told him. "He might not be able to act as a messenger for us, legitimate or not," Ed pointed out. "Plus, he might not do it if there's a chance that Ishval could be attacked by someone who wants information on Altea or Voltron," he added.

"I'll speak with Scar," Grumman said. "If he's not comfortable with what we'll be asking him to do, we'll figure something else out," Grumman promised. "Even if that means that once a month, I ask you, Edward, or someone from your team, General Mustang, to head out to Ishval to check the drop location," Grumman said.

"I don't think there'd be any objections from anyone on my team to perform that duty," Mustang said, already picturing the reactions he would get by telling one of his team members that they'd be spending three days doing nothing more than travelling to Ishval, pretend to check a drop point, then travel back to Amestris.

"Probably not," Ed snickered. The only complaints he figured the team would give would be the heat and the constant travelling.

Allura seemed bemused with Ed's amusement but she didn't comment on it. "I believe that means that we now have a plan in place for communications between us and Amestris," she said and Grumman nodded.

"That we do," Grumman confirmed. "Now, since that is sorted, there is another something else I need to tell you all. Mrs. Hughes will actually have a message on her answering machine from Samantha regarding this," Grumman told Ed and Al.

"You already managed to corral the generals into agreeing to a meeting?" Ed couldn't help but ask. He couldn't help his shock either and he didn't bother to hide it.

Grumman didn't look bothered by the interruption but Al did hiss out Ed's name in a reprimanding tone. "Yes," Grumman said with a nod. "I have managed to set up a meeting with all of the generals who were present during our first official meeting with Voltron, minus Combes and Widdon, of course," Grumman said and Ed knew he didn't imagine the slightly satisfied glint in Grumman's eyes when he mentioned that, "as well as Lieutenant-General Armstrong and two other generals who are in Central from our sister cities for military business."

At that, Ed's brows shot up in surprise and he knew he wasn't the only one. "I thought General Armstrong would've gotten out of Central the moment she could've," Ed said, slightly stunned.

"I believe her parents managed to persuade her into staying with them for the weekend before she leaves for Fort Briggs on the first train available Monday rather than leaving yesterday," Grumman divulged. "I believe that she agreed to attend the meeting because she's curious about you, Princess Allura, and how you arrived in Central," Grumman said. "Which reminds me," he looked at all of them, "if anyone asks, Princess Allura arrived in Amestris shortly before your visit this morning," he nodded to Edward, Alphonse, and Voltron, "and that you asked me to arrange this meeting for this afternoon at Princess Allura's request. The reason that we didn't see her this morning is because there were some unforeseen effects of her travelling via portal and she was recovering," he instructed.

"Sure thing," Ed agreed easily and soon enough, Grumman had gotten verbal or visible confirmation from all of those he'd been speaking to. "So what time is this meeting?" Ed asked, mainly curious to see if they would have time to get Elysia from Mustang's office and go for lunch before they were subjected to a meeting between eight generals, including Mustang, and Grumman that might go for hours.

"I've arranged it to take place in the conference room attached to my offices and for it to start at 2:00pm this afternoon," Grumman told him.

Ed glanced at the clock on Grumman's desk and noted it was nearly 11:00am, which meant they would have plenty of time to pick Elysia up and get some lunch. And since Gracia would be finishing work at 12:30pm, they would also be able to drop Elysia home and not have to worry about where she could stay and who would look after her while the meeting was taking place. "Cool," Ed said. "So, we're good to go and come back in time for the meeting?" Ed asked, looking at Grumman and Mustang, though the glance at Mustang was a silent dare to make up an excuse and push his lunch plans aside.

"Yes, I believe you are," Grumman said with a nod.

Mustang didn't say anything so Ed talk that as permission to get ready to leave. "In that case, we'll see you this afternoon," Ed said. His words seemed to be what the others were subconsciously waiting for to get ready to leave as both Mustang and Allura stood from their chairs.

Grumman was quick to stand as well. "Before you leave, Princess Allura," Grumman said, staying anything Allura was about to say, "there is the matter of where you'll stay while you're in Amestris," he told her. "There are a couple of options available. I can arrange for you to stay in a suite at one of the hotels in town with a guard assigned to your room or you can stay in one of the guest rooms typically reserved for visiting family members in the Fuhrer's mansion. The only other occupants are myself and my wife as Voltron has been staying in either Mrs. Hughes' home or General Mustang's," Grumman explained.

"Can't I stay in one of their homes?" Allura asked, clearly confused as to why they weren't an option.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe either of them have any spare room left," Grumman said, sounding apologetic.

"Green and I can sleep in the lounge room with Keith, Red, Hunk and Yellow. Allura can take Mustang's spare room," Pidge immediately offered, looking between Allura, Grumman, and Mustang.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Allura asked, unwilling to ask one of her Paladins to give up their bed just for her.

"Yeah, it's only gonna be for two nights and it's not like we've never slept in worse conditions for longer before," Pidge told her, dismissing Allura's concerns.

"So long as you're sure," Allura pushed and both Pidge and Green nodded. Satisfied, Allura turned to Grumman. "In that case, I thank you for your generous offers but I will accept Pidge's," she told him.

Grumman inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Very well," Grumman said. "That was the only thing I believe I needed to speak with you about before the meeting this afternoon," Grumman told her before he addressed the rest of the group. "I will see you all before 2:00pm, if possible," he told them and got nods to acknowledge they'd heard him. "Enjoy the few hours in between now and then," he said, obviously dismissing them.

"See you then, Sir," Ed said, offering Grumman a salute alongside Mustang and Hawkeye.

Grumman dismissed the salutes just as Alphonse opened the door so everyone could start heading out, which they did. Ed and Al gave Grumman a wave as the pair left the office, leaving the Fuhrer alone with his paperwork and the meeting to look forward to. Samantha was on the phone as they all headed for the outer office doors so Ed, Al, and the others settled for giving her a silent wave of goodbye, that she happily returned before they left the offices entirely.

"What are your plans now?" Mustang asked Ed once the group started heading down the corridor and Ed shrugged a shoulder.

"Assuming everyone's all good with it," Ed glanced at Allura, Alphonse, and Voltron, "I figured we'd pick up Elysia and head to lunch. Miss Gracia will finish work and should be home by 1:00pm so we'll also duck by her apartment to drop Elysia off so she's not bored while we're in the meeting," Ed told him.

Mustang gave a nod at his words. "What about you, Captain Hawkeye?" he asked his second.

"I have a few errands I'd planned on getting done today since it's my day off," Hawkeye reminded him. "I'll be completing those before I report back to the base in time for the meeting, so long as you wish for me to attend it," she told him.

"Yes, I think it would be beneficial for you to attend the meeting," Mustang said almost immediately and Ed couldn't judge him. Hawkeye was someone you really wanted at your back when you were meeting with the generals, especially when that meeting was pulled together without much warning, as Ed had discovered the one and only time he'd attended such a meeting.

"Very well," Hawkeye said. "I'll make sure that I'm back on base in time for it," she promised him as they continued down the path that would lead them to Mustang's offices.

Ed's and everyone else's attention was grabbed when Allura let out a startled gasp and suddenly pulled her shoulder bag around to her front. At Mustang's curious and questioning look, Ed could only offer a shrug of his shoulders as they watched the princess dig through her bag. "When I was packing for this trip," Allura said, hand busy pushing things aside in the bag, "Coran brought up how Edward and Lance had asked him about finding you some waterproof cloth that could also create a spark or something similar to it for you to use for your flame alchemy gloves. Coran told me that he hadn't had the chance to check the fabric room for anything that would work since we received word of Zarkon and Haggar's locations that afternoon and he was busy either with the Castle-Ship or the rescued prisoners until you ended leaving," she explained before she let out a victorious noise and produced three lots of fabric. "We couldn't make you your gloves since we didn't have your hand measurements and we're not entirely sure if these two fabrics will work," Allura told Mustang, lifting the two cuts of seemingly identical fabric that sat on top of the pile, "but the third one is what Ed's gloves are made out of and we know you were successfully able to bond your incendiary mixture to it so we thought it would be a good idea to include it in case the other two weren't able to be used," she told him, handing the fabric over to the slightly stunned general.

"Thank you, Princess Allura," Mustang said as he accepted the fabrics. "I really appreciate your gift," he told her, bowing slightly to show his gratitude.

"You're welcome, General Mustang," Allura said with a smile, obviously pleased her gift had been well-received. "I trust you'll put those fabrics to good use," she said before deeming the conversation done and turning to Ed to ask the question that she'd been wanting to ask since she'd heard his plans for the next few hours. "Where are we going to eat? I'd love to hear about the kinds of Earth food I'll be trying!"

Mustang couldn't hold back his amused smirk when Ed's eyes immediately lit up at her question and the realisation that Allura had never eaten anything from Earth and therefore needed to be introduced to everything he could possibly introduce her to. Mustang was positive he wasn't the only one who chuckled when Ed immediately and enthusiastically started explaining all of the restaurants he personally enjoyed eating in detail to the enraptured Altean princess.


"It seems we're starting to make impromptu meetings amongst the high-ranking officials a habit," Grumman said as he joined the eight generals, Ed, Al, Allura, and Voltron in the conference room attached to his offices. There were a few chuckles and amused smiles from those in the room. "Thank you all for rearranging your schedules so you could attend this meeting," Grumman said gratefully as he sat down in the chair he usually occupied when in this room. "Major-General Muller, Brigadier-General Deacon, thank you for putting your travel plans back to your respective cities on hold to attend this meeting," Grumman said, nodding to the two male generals that Ed had recognised but hadn't known the names of.

"Of course, Fuhrer Grumman. You said this matter was important," General Muller said from Grumman's right.

"It is," Grumman confirmed. "I'm sure all of you have noticed that there is someone who is a stranger to most of you within this room," Grumman said, nodding to Allura, who was sitting primly in between Ed and Shiro. From the fact that no one was surprised to see her there, Ed could safely assume all the generals had noticed her. General Armstrong had spotted her immediately upon entering the room and a flash of recognition had passed through her eyes before a silent threat had been levelled at Ed, informing him that they would be speaking in private sooner rather than later. "This is Princess Allura of Altea. She is the leader of the country Voltron belongs to and she arrived in Amestris earlier this morning to escort her team home," Grumman told them.

The moment Grumman mentioned that Allura was Voltron's leader, every general gave some sign that both the Fuhrer and the princess had their undivided attention. "Forgive me if this sounds blunt but how is she here?" Sayer asked, eyes flicking suspiciously to Allura. "From what I gathered from Voltron when we first met, they had no clue Amestris even existed and their arrival into our country was completely unplanned. I certainly haven't heard anything about Voltron being able to contact their country, let alone their leader, so how is it that she is here?" Sayer queried.

Grumman nodded at her question. "That was one of the first things I asked her myself when we met earlier this morning," Grumman said. "I believe it would be best if she answered your question though," he told her before looking at Allura, effectively handing the reins over to her.

Allura didn't hesitate to take over the conversation. "When I received word that Voltron had disappeared alongside Lotor in a flash of brilliant light, I immediately started searching for answers to the questions of what happened and where my team was," Allura told them. "After some searching, my advisor was the one to discover that Lotor had been dabbling in the use of quintessence for a few months before I sent Voltron after him." It had taken some time to get Allura used to the phrases Amestris used for their time markers, like days, months, seconds, etc. but it seemed that all that work had paid off. "Once we realised that Lotor had been using quintessence and that something had likely gone wrong when he tried to use it, I ordered a search for trustworthy and competent quintessence users to be found to see if they could assist us in our search," she explained.

"It took you nearly three weeks to find a quintessence user?" Ward asked, her disbelief evident.

Allura didn't look offended by Ward's tone. "No, we found one within a few days," she told her. "It took us nearly three weeks to figure out a way to find my missing team and devise a plan to bring them home," she informed them.

"If the plan was to bring them home, why are you here?" Deacon asked, dark eyes narrowing as he looked at the foreign princess.

Ed felt his metaphorical hackles rise and he could feel the Lions' react the same way but Allura seemed oblivious to the general's tone and behaviour. "The quintessence user we found has only been practising her art for a year," Allura told them. "Because of this, she needed time to try and figure out what exactly Lotor had done. It took her nearly four days to do so and once she had, her focus then turned to whether she would be able to use quintessence to find Lotor or Voltron and, if so, how she would use it to find them," Allura explained. "At the two-week mark, our quintessence user concluded that Lotor had been trying to teleport himself away from Voltron but had used too much quintessence, lost control of the spell and accidentally brought himself and Voltron to your country. Armed with this knowledge, she started devising spells that would use Voltron's individual quintessence to track them –"

"I apologise for interrupting," Brathwaite said. Allura didn't seem phased and nodded for him to continue. "When Voltron first arrived in Central, they told us that they had no knowledge of quintessence. They'd never heard of it before and they claimed they couldn't use it," Brathwaite said. "How could your quintessence user use Voltron's quintessence if they don't have any?" he asked, finally getting to the point.

"Oh, I understand your confusion and I apologise for not clearing this up earlier," Allura said. "As explained to me by my quintessence user, quintessence is the energy held within every living thing," Allura told them. "It is everywhere and in everything that is alive, be it us," she gestured to everyone in the room, "animals, or even plant life," she explained. "This means that everyone contains quintessence and can be identified by it as their signature is unique to them," Allura said. "Anyone competent in the art of quintessence usage can utilise that fact to track anyone with their quintessence, much like a dog can track a scent left by someone," Allura told them.

"I understand now. Thank you for explaining that," Brathwaite said.

"You're welcome," Allura told him, giving him a polite smile. "Even once we knew how to find them, once we did, the biggest problem was then the fact that we had no idea where exactly Voltron was. We'd never heard of Amestris before so we didn't know what we were dealing with," Allura said. "We knew, thanks to how strong their quintessence was, that they were likely safe and healthy, which helped assuage our fears around their well-being," Allura said, "but that didn't guarantee us that your country knew they were in Amestris," Allura added. "For all we knew, they'd recaptured Lotor but were in hiding so they wouldn't be caught by your country," she told them.

"What made you realise they weren't?" Muller asked curiously.

"Two things," Allura said. "The first was that their quintessence never faded in the way that would tell us they were under more stress than we would deem acceptable, which told us that they weren't growing anxious with each day that passed that they were going to be caught," Allura told them. "The second was that our quintessence user could sense their quintessence…" Allura trailed off thoughtfully for a moment, "interacting – for lack of a better word – with quintessences they didn't know. Normally," she said before anyone could interrupt her to ask what she meant, "our quintessence user would never be able to pick on the quintessence of someone she can't even see, let alone has never met, however because of the amount of time Voltron has spent with certain people in Amestris, she believes that their quintessence was starting to seep into those people, much like how your scent would linger on a person who you spend a lot of time with," Allura said, explaining the phenomenon that she was making up on the spot as best she could. "This told us that they were around strangers and weren't giving our quintessence user any reason to believe she was sensing distress within them which had us believe that we would be safe to try and get them back home," Allura told them.

The generals – minus Mustang and Armstrong – were all looking rather amazed by what Allura was saying. However, that didn't mean that they were suddenly no longer wary of her. "Okay, so quintessence helped you get some idea of where your citizens were and what kind of shape they were in," Coleman said. "Why didn't you take them home straight away? Why did you come here? For that matter, how did you arrive? I don't believe that question has been answered yet," Coleman said.

"For one, I wished to thank those who had taken my team in and treated them so well in person," Allura told him. "Another reason I didn't just take them home straight away is because I didn't know if everything had been dealt with or whether it would cause some kind of panic or insult," she continued. "As for how I arrived here, my quintessence user was able to recreate the spell Lotor had accidentally use," she told them. "She waited for a time where Voltron was all together before she used their quintessence as something of a guiding beacon to open a portal that let me arrive in your country from Altea almost instantaneously," Allura revealed.

"You can open a portal and send someone through it without warning?" Armstrong asked. It was apparent to Ed that even though she knew the true story behind Voltron and everything else that the other generals – Mustang excepted – didn't know, it didn't mean she wasn't suspicious of them or what they could do. The knowledge that Allura had arrived via portal, something that no known Amestrian could do, had triggered Armstrong's suspicions and put them into high gear. "What's to stop your country from sending through armies into the heart of Amestris and try to take our country by force?" she asked, eyes flashing dangerously.

To her credit, Allura didn't look offended or even affected by Armstrong's blunt accusations. "I understand why that would be a fear to you and your country," Allura said, "and I understand that your worries and fears won't completely disappear no matter what I say or promise to you today. I cannot guarantee that every citizen belonging to my country will abide by my laws just as you and your leader cannot promise me the same if Altea's location was ever discovered in relation to Amestris. However what I can guarantee you is that I had no intentions of ever using our portal spells for nefarious purposes and I certainly haven't developed any after speaking with Fuhrer Grumman this morning," she told them. "The war between Lotor's people and mine has cost both sides heavily and I am in no rush to put my people through a second war and especially not when we haven't managed to win our current war," Allura informed Armstrong, speaking directly to her.

"Princess Allura and I have already discussed the possibility of a trade agreement between our countries," Grumman said, interjecting himself into the conversation. "The subject was broached when Princess Allura offered to repay us for housing Voltron during their stay. She has agreed to provide Amestris with the plans to several items that would help advance us technologically," Grumman revealed. "I have accepted her offered repayment but we are still yet to speak at length about the details of a trade agreement since I require your support for one to be implemented," he told them.

"Does part of that trade agreement include details of the weapons Voltron used during their stay here?" Muller asked.

Grumman shook his head. "No, Princess Allura has made it clear that she will not be sharing any plans for their weaponry at this time," he told them.

"How can we be expected to trust them if they won't share how their weapons are made?" Deacon asked.

"How can we trust you not to turn our weapons against us?" Allura countered smoothly. "You speak of being uncertain about how you can trust us because we are able to use portals in a way you do not understand and in the same argument, you ask us for the plans to our most advanced weapons? What guarantee would you be able to give us that would assure my people that we will not find ourselves in a second war but facing enemies who we have armed?" she asked. Even though Ed knew that none of this would happen since Allura wasn't in charge of a country or anyone other than Voltron and Coran, he still found himself almost panicking over the possibility of a war being declared right in this room.

Deacon didn't look cowed but he did incline his head, conceding to Allura's point. Grumman decided to step in to avoid the meeting heading in a direction he didn't want it to. "At this time, we have agreed that the sharing of any weaponry plans or other items of a similar nature will not happen," he told the generals. "Amestris will not be providing any information on alchemy or how it can be used nor will we be revealing anything about any of our own weapons or battle scenario plans to Altea and they will be withholding the same information – or their equivalent of it," Grumman said firmly. His words seemed to be enough to have the generals calm down and start believing that this would be a trade agreement that was beneficial to both sides, as well as equivalent.

"Am I correct in my assumption that this would mean that we should expect diplomatic visits from Altea?" Brathwaite asked.

"Yes, it is something that has been discussed," Grumman said while Allura nodded. "Princess Allura has agreed to ask her quintessence user to open a portal to permit a visitor or two easy entrance to Amestris. As Altea is still at war, even if it is starting to come to an end, Amestris will not be permitting anyone to visit Altea to lessen their chances of being caught up in any fighting they don't need to be part of," Grumman told the generals. "Once Altea is at peace, Princess Allura and I will revisit the terms around diplomatic visitations and revise them, if we believe we need to," he said.

"How often will these visits be?" Sayer asked.

"To start with, I believe once every three months should be satisfactory," Allura told her, Grumman nodding alongside her words. "In a year or two's time, we will discuss whether the visits need to be increased, decreased or to stay at the same frequency they are."

"Who will you have acting as your diplomatic representative?" Coleman asked curiously.

"At this time, I believe it would be best if the teams of Voltron take it in turns to act as our diplomatic representatives," Allura told him. "They are familiar with Amestris and you are familiar with them. They seem to get along with most those they've met here and they understand your customs and culture more than I or any other citizen of Altea do," she rationalised.

"That does seem to be the wisest course of action," Coleman said with a nod.

"How do you intend on getting back to Altea?" Armstrong asked, eyes still suspicious.

"The same way I arrived here," Allura answered promptly. "My quintessence user has said that she will require two days to recover her energy. That is when we plan to leave," she told her.

"How will you be able to speak with your quintessence user to ensure she doesn't open a portal at an inconvenient time or in an inconvenient place?" Armstrong asked, apparently pushing Allura to show that she and her country were trustworthy.

"I will press the button on this device twice," Allura said, holding up her left wrist to show the black item strapped to it like a wrist-watch, "which will use my quintessence to send a signal to our quintessence user and let her know that I am waiting for her to open a portal, which she will do so moments after I've sent the signal," Allura explained. "I have no intentions of having a portal open up on your main street and having some of your citizens accidentally walk through it," she told them, her lips curling up slightly in an amused smirk.

"We appreciate that," Grumman said, eyes twinkling slightly. "Princess Allura has already agreed to meet with me at some stage tomorrow so we can go through and fine-tune a trade agreement between our countries. I would like for those of you who wish to go over the finalised trade agreement and are still in Central to pay my office a visit tomorrow afternoon so that there is still time for Princess Allura and I to talk about any suggestions you may have," Grumman instructed. Once he'd received the nods from the generals, he continued. "For now, I would like to open this meeting up to everyone. Please, if you have a suggestion for the trade agreement or any questions or concerns regarding this meeting's topics, feel free to speak up," Grumman said invitingly.

Ed barely managed to internalise his groan when he saw every single general – including Mustang and Armstrong – lean forward, ready to speak. He could fee the amusement from the Lions and somehow managed to not give into the urge to glare at them. "We'll see how amused you are after hour two of this meeting," Ed muttered to them through their bonds. As though he could sense Ed's annoyance, Mustang smirked at him and Ed managed to flip him off subtly.

"I'm sure we'll be owing you an apology by that time but for now, let us enjoy our amusement at your expense," Black said, letting out a bark of laughter that her sisters joined in on when Ed flipped them off in response.


"Okay, here's our mission," Ed said, tone serious as he faced Gracia, Elysia, and Alphonse. They'd managed to convince Voltron and Allura to hang with Mustang and his team at Central Command while the four of them headed into town. It had been surprisingly easy to do so since it afforded Allura and Grumman the opportunity to fine-tune the diplomatic agreement that had been reached during the meeting the previous afternoon between Amestris and Altea. "We are going to split up and search for things to send home with Voltron and Princess Allura for them, Coran, Doctor Holt and Matthew to use or enjoy," he told them, almost grinning at how serious Elysia looked at her mission. "Miss Gracia, Elysia, make sure you keep your receipts so that you can be paid back for whatever you buy," Ed reminded them.

"What sorts of things should buy them, big brother?" Elysia asked before Gracia could say anything.

"Whatever you think they'll like," Ed told her. "If you've heard them say something about things they like or miss and you can see them, ask your mother to buy them, okay?"

"Okay, big brother," Elysia said, looking determined to complete her mission.

"We'll focus on buying them practical things like coffee, spices, plants or seeds, things like that," Ed told Gracia, who nodded, even if she did look confused about the plants and seeds. "So Pidge can grow them and have them to practise with," Ed explained and saw Gracia's confusion clear.

"Okay," Gracia said as she gripped Elysia's hand. "Should we meet somewhere in a set amount of time or just shop until we think we've got enough and head home?" she asked.

Ed considered it for a moment before he looked at Alphonse for help. With the BAU, it had taken a few hours but they'd all been with them and they'd gone out for dinner as well. Al seemed mildly stumped as well but eventually came to a decision. "I think it's probably better if we shop until we think we've bought them enough things and head back to yours," Al said, nodding to Gracia.

The elder Hughes gave a nod. "Alright," she said. "We'll see you at home in a couple of hours or so," she told them. "Keep yourselves out of trouble," Gracia said, eyes twinkling when Ed rolled his eyes.

"You too," Ed told her before looking at Elysia. "Behave for your mother, okay?" he told her.

"Okay, big brother!" Elysia agreed happily. "See you both at home!"

"We'll see you there," Al said while Ed ruffled Elysia's hair.

The boys watched the Hughes family head towards the closest shop, ready to carry out their mission before they headed in the opposite direction. "What do you think we should get first?" Ed asked Al as they crossed the street.

"Well," Al said, humming thoughtfully. "I think we should start by getting…"

A/N- Here's chapter 36 for you all! Next week will be the final chapter, as I'm sure those of you still reading this story know so that's exciting. Thank you to those of you who have been reviewing the posted chapters and I truly appreciate them all! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! See you all next week!