Derek had slept like a log, completely exhausted. He wanted a shower, felt like he still had sand everywhere, and more than anything, he was missing Spencer. One of the advantages of working with his partner is they get to travel together. Unlike JJ and Will, they aren't actually separated that much. If Derek hadn't been so exhausted the night before, he is sure he wouldn't have slept nearly as well as he had.

Mrs. Curtis—Izumi—sets another cup of coffee in front of him before sitting across from where he and JJ and eaten their breakfasts in quiet compared to the rest of the noise and fluster of the camp. They might have gotten to stay in the palace ruins, but the eating area was communal.

"Thank you," he tells her, taking the coffee. It's not quite the same as the coffee from his world, but it's close enough to be comfortable.

"You're still looking a bit wrung out," she says. "Not used to hiking through the desert?"

"No," Derek admits. JJ had put her head down on the table and promptly fallen back asleep despite the heat of the day beginning to climb. "I'm in shape, but I think Ed said we hiked twenty miles through all of… that—" He makes a vague gesture toward the outside of the city. "—It's not the same."

Chuckling softly, Izumi says, "No, it certainly is not. I'm sure we'll be listening to Ed complaining about sand in the automail for weeks." The reminder is painful, makes Derek's lips thin. Izumi seems to realize it because she adds, "Not that you'll be here that long. I'm sure that brat won't wait weeks to get his general back." She takes a sip of her own coffee.

I didn't go there this time, he thinks. He was going to leave it alone. He was. He wasn't going to keep picking at this because Ed has asked him repeatedly to stop. It still is like a splinter under his skin, digging in, catching, reminding him that it's there and needs to be pulled out.

"Can I ask you a question?" he asks.

"Of course," she says, then flashes a grin. "As long as you can stand the answer."

"You're really okay with it? With Ed and… Mustang?"

She blinks at him. "Why wouldn't I be?" Her husband—Sig, he thinks—comes over and sets down a couple bowls of an oatmeal-looking porridge. Hers has what looks like a drizzle of honey over the top of it, and she beams up at him unreserved as he sits at her side.

It's clear that it just really doesn't bother her, so he's clearly barking up the wrong tree here, "Never mind," he says. "It's not important."

"Obviously it's important to you," Sig says, a deep, booming voice coming from his chest, but soft. It's not that surprising. A man built like Sig doesn't need to bluster and be loud to be intimidating.

Derek takes a long sip of his coffee, letting the warmth seep into him. The sun is rising, and the coming heat can be felt, but there's still a hint of a chill in the morning air. It won't last long, but it's enough that the warm coffee is welcome. "It's just… he was sixteen."

"And?" Izumi asks, mixing her porridge.

Sighing, Derek says, "You know what, I told Ed I wasn't going to keep nagging."

"Is it not typical for sixteen-year-olds to get married in your world?" Sig asks with surprising insight.

"It's… still legal in some places, with parental permission and if you can find someone willing to perform the ceremony, but it's not common in first-world countries anymore. Eighteen is the age of majority."

"First-world?" Izumi asks.

"Uh… sort of the most… civilized? Most… advanced, I guess, countries in our world. Or the ones thought to be so anyway."

"Hmm…" Izumi hums, not sounding like she really thinks much of it. "Well, I suppose I can see why that might be a problem to you."

She doesn't offer any further commentary on it, and Derek resolves to drop it, for real this time. Obviously this world has different standards, and Derek is simply not going to win this battle. He can't judge by his standards.

Well, he can, he's just not going to get anywhere with it.

They make smalltalk for long enough that JJ wakes up and gets her own breakfast and coffee.

"Sorry," she says.

"Didn't sleep well?" Derek asks, surprised.

"Slept fine," she says. "Just didn't sleep enough, that's all."

He frowns at her, but she doesn't elaborate and he's not quite up to prying if she doesn't want to share. Being away from Ed is making him a little edgy though.

Just when he's considering suggesting they go back to the room, Ed comes loping down the stairs. He's got a tanktop, his pants, and boots on, and not much else, except the new automail. Winry follows behind him, yawning widely.

"Morning, Brother!" Al calls, and Derek must have been a bit out of it not to see him sooner. He has Eden on his shoulder and is bouncing her cheerfully, looking as though he's been awake for hours.

Ed pauses in his steps, running his eyes over Al like he's something unique and special, something that is precious to Ed. He hesitates a moment, then pulls Al in for a tight hug, as if he can't resist, though he's mindful of Eden, who giggles and babbles at him.

"Hey, shrimp!" Izumi calls, getting his attention.

"Who the fuck are you calling so small an ant could step on him!" Ed snarls.

" You," Izumi continues, unimpressed. "You've got that new automail. Don't you need to put it to the test?"

Ed approaches the table. "Aren't you even going to let me get breakfast?" he asks.

"You can eat after," Izumi replies. "Besides, it'd be a waste if I'm going to make you throw it up anyway." The grin she flashes him is fierce.

"You know, maybe I need to get more used to this—it's a lot lighter than my last set—"

"You know that the only way you're going to be sure of it is to test it out," Al points out reasonably. JJ stands up and offers her arms.

"May I?" she asks.

Al smiles at her and hands Eden over to her. She seems a happy baby and goes to JJ willingly.

"I don't suppose you're going to spar with us, Al?" Ed asks, leaning against the table, arms crossed.

"I wouldn't want to embarrass you," Al replies without missing a beat.

"Who the hell says—"

"That's Teacher's job."

Ed glares while Al gives him an innocent grin.

"C'mon, brat," Izumi says, grabbing the back of Ed's shirt. "Let's go."

"Where are you going?" Derek asks, suddenly alarmed instead of amused to see Ed so heckled. Usually he's the one doing the heckling.

"Trust me," Al says. "You don't want them sparring in the city limits. They're going out to the desert."

Derek narrows his eyes at him. "Is that really necessary?"

"With two alchemists of their caliber?" Sig interrupts. "Yes."

Looking entirely too innocent, Al throws a thumb at Sig. "What he said."

Izumi and Ed bicker as they make their way beyond the walls of the city. "Do they do this all the time?" Derek asks Al, who is far too amused.

"All the time," he says. "Though they might be making up for some lost time."

As they walk, Derek can see Ed adjusting to the new automail, his stride becoming more confident, the loping, ground-eating pace he's used to associating with Ed.

"Is it normal to test automail like this?" JJ asks.

Winry is with them, still looking exhausted but upright for now. "No," she says. "This is a uniquely Edward Elric way of testing out new automail. Most people need at least a few hours to recover from having their automail reattached, and new automail usually takes a few days at least to get used to. Ed's an anomaly." The last word is broken up by a yawn.

"You were up all night making it?" Derek asks.

"Winry has kept a new set of Ed's automail with her for years," Al informs.

"Al!" she protests.

He gives her a sunny smile in return, and she huffs but doesn't yell at him further. That's a powerful weapon, that look.

"But yes, she still would have had to be up to adjust it to the sizes Brother needed now. He's grown since she last saw him, so she would have had to customize it," he continues.

Snorting under her breath, Winry says, "Who would have thought he'd actually grow?"

Ed stops midargument with Izumi and snarls, "Who the fuck said I wouldn't?"

"Who used to wear two-inch lifts in his shoes and style his hair tall just to make himself a couple inches taller?" Winry teases.

Flushing, Ed stomps on ahead.

"You know, I've never understood why his height is such a sore spot for him," JJ comments dryly, giving Al a look.

Al makes a thoughtful noise, then says, "I've always been as big or bigger than him pretty much all our lives, even though he's older. Then when he first became the Fullmetal Alchemist and started getting famous, everyone kept mistaking me for him."

"You?" Derek asks, giving Al a pointed look.

"Well, I was a seven-foot-tall suit of armor, so I guess when people heard 'Fullmetal,' they thought something like me, not like Brother," he says with a soft laugh. "I'm glad he's grown though. I think part of the reason he stayed so short is because he was supporting my body in the Gate. As soon as I got my body back, he started growing quite a bit. Otherwise, he was still just over five feet tall when he was sixteen."

Derek should really stop asking random questions. There are several things Al just said that he doesn't understand and doesn't think he can pretend to. Being a suit of armor? Being detached from his body? Ed has alluded to such things, so have others, but it still doesn't make sense to Derek at all. It's just… things you'd see in a movie or a fantasy novel, not real life.

Unless you're from this world, apparently.

They reach the gates of the walls, and when Derek and JJ make to follow Ed and Izumi into the desert, Al grabs their arms and nods toward a hidden stairway.

"You'll have a better view from above," he says.

"If he breaks my automail after I just gave him the new stuff, I'm going to beat him with the pieces," Winry grumbles, but follows Al up to the ramparts.

From above, Ed and Izumi look small, but Ed is in a ready stance, while Izumi is standing as if taunting. They're too high for their voices to carry, Derek gets a general sense of taunting from Izumi.

Then Ed moves.

They've seen him fight once.

This is not like that.

Ed is fast , so fast. Derek barely remembers watching him move last time, seeing the dunes rise up and carve around him, trying to wrap his head around the monster that Heinkel appeared to be. It all feels scattered and unreal and like he must surely be misremembering.

Watching Ed now, he doesn't think he was misremembering. Ed transforms his new arm into a blade again, like he had with Heinkel, and he dashes toward Izumi, who deflects him effortlessly, like he's barely a fly to bother her. She gets a grip on a leg and throws him. Ed rolls and gets back to his feet, going back at her. She blocks even the automail as if it's nothing impressive, as if Ed is nothing impressive.

That is not the case. Derek remembers back to his first impression of Ed, the first time they met—that he carried himself like a fighter, like someone with serious training in fighting. He wasn't wrong.

"How did we not know?" JJ asks, watching Ed dart in again, undeterred by how easily Izumi is throwing him off. He flips and lands, a tiny hesitation where he checks his balance, then he's off again.

"Not know what?" Al asks, turning to look at her.

"Not know he could do this?" Derek replies, following JJ's train of thought.

Al looks out over Ed, who appears to have lost his patience with a head-on attack because he claps his hands together and slams them to the ground.

Izumi finally has to crouch, gain her balance. She claps her own hands together and drops them to the ground, trying to counter all of the bars and rods and other things Derek can barely describe that Ed is apparently throwing at her.

Where she had the obvious upper hand with Ed in the hand-to-hand battle, it's equally obvious that her alchemy, while impressive, cannot challenge Ed's. The whole desert has come alive as they battle, but Ed claps, hits the ground, and then moves, again and again. In constant motion, the desert answers his commands. The difference between what they create is obvious, even to Derek's untrained eye. Izumi is all large, overbearing walls and hands. What Ed creates is almost elegant, almost artistic, flexible and adaptable, and it moves with him as if there is nothing so simple to him.

A massive cloud of dust rises up, obscuring their sight as huge mounds of sand crash down.

When it clears, Izumi is pinned on a cross, and Ed's blade is at her throat. Though they can't see it from so far away, he can imagine Ed's triumphant grin, all teeth and savage and proud, but nothing nice.

In JJ's arms, Eden burbles in delight and she claps.

A red-eyed, dark-skinned water on the wall says, "So that's the Fullmetal Alchemist? The man who defeated a false god."

Al demures, obviously unsurprised to see Ed or Izumi do this. "Well, he didn't do it alone." While Derek is sure that's true, it suddenly doesn't seem so impossible. Izumi had said something about beating a god, hadn't she? He had shrugged it off as an exaggeration, but now, he wonders.

Winry makes a sound of satisfaction. "I wouldn't have thought he had gotten better."

"Yeah," Derek says faintly, feeling the world shifting beneath his feet. "Who would have thought."