Ed can't decide what feels better, being able to fight, all out like he hasn't in years, how light he feels with Winry's new automail, or just being able to use alchemy again.
Okay, it really isn't a contest. The alchemy is the best part.
It's like he never lost it. He had never stopped developing circles in his mind, never stopped calculating transmutations, even in a world where alchemy didn't exist so he couldn't use it even if he were able.
"It's like you never lost your ability to transmute at all," Al says, meeting up with him and Teacher at the entrance.
"It was pretty impressive," Winry concedes grudgingly, grabbing his arm and yanking on it to inspect it. "Though getting all the sand out is going to be a bitch."
"I'm used to it," he tells her, then turns to Al. "Remember the game Roy and I used to play?"
It takes only a moment before Al's eyes light up in recognition. "The game you played with the General to help him learn how to do more fundamental transmutations!"
That gets JJ and Morgan's attention, and they look at him curiously.
"You taught Mustang?" JJ asks, curious and a little confused. She's also got a little pinch in her brow that tells him she's also probably got a hell of a headache developing.
"The General is very good," Al says, "But he was like most alchemists and very specialized."
"Wait, most alchemists can't do what Ed and Mrs. Curtis just did?" Morgan asks.
Teacher gives him a whack on the back of his head. "Haven't you taught your team anything useful?" she asks.
Ed rubs at where she smacked, not that it actually hurt. "We have established that alchemy doesn't exist in their world, right? What do you think I did? Spent the whole hike here just explaining all of alchemy to them?"
"That would only have been useful if you wanted to put them to sleep," Winry says, releasing his arm back to him. It's so light it does leave him feeling a little off-balance, but he knows from experience that he'll adjust to it quickly. It being lighter also makes him faster, and he longingly wishes Roy could have seen him beat Teacher. That's an accomplishment Roy would understand and appreciate.
"I can explain while we walk," Ed grumbles in reply, digging his hands into his pockets. "So, most alchemists can't transmute just by clapping. They have to create a physical array. Professionals usually use stagnant arrays. It's not uncommon for alchemists to tattoo their primary arrays on their bodies so that they always have them ready. Roy has his primary array stitched on the backs of his gloves."
Morgan and JJ are both wearing listening faces.
"So how can all of you three transmute?" JJ pauses on the unfamiliar word as if testing it out. Al nods encouragingly. "How can you transmute without one?"
"It's a sign that we've all been to the Gate," Ed says. "Something about seeing the source of Alchemy or god or whatever the fuck it wants to call itself allows alchemists to hold the array in their minds." He claps his hands together, mind free of any arrays for the moment, and shows his teammates. "Clapping makes a physical circle, but we hold the details of the array in our heads," he says, releasing the clap and tapping his temple.
JJ glances at Morgan before she looks back at Ed. "And Mustang couldn't do that?"
Fuck, this gets into a whole lot of shit that Ed really does not want to get into with JJ and Morgan. It's bad enough that they're already borderline shell-shocky from the crazy of alchemy is real and Ed is an alchemist , not to mention Ed is a child soldier and from another world, he really doesn't want to throw Ed and Roy helped stage a successful military coup against superhuman monsters who wanted to sacrifice some 50 million people to become a god to their list of completely impossible things from Ed's world if he doesn't have to.
Thank goodness for Al. "The General was the victim of an experiment that gave him the ability," Al tells them with exactly the right amount of truth and lie in it, plus that perfect ability to lie straightfaced. "After that, the General gained the ability to do alchemy without a circle, but most alchemists are highly specialized, so just because he could theoretically do alchemy without a drawn array didn't mean that he had the experience with other types of transmutations to fully to utilize it."
Ed continues on with the opening that Al left him. "Right. I lost access to my internal Gate, which is something that all alchemists have access to. But I didn't lose the ability to visualize arrays. So to teach Roy how to do alchemy with elements he was less familiar with, I'd give him a hypothetical, and we'd go back and forth creating arrays to do the transmutation. We made a game of it. So I'd give him the transmutation, tell him to create a circle for it and I'd create my own. We'd compare the two circles and then Roy would test them both."
"He would test them both?" Morgan asks, sounding confused.
"An array is basically a mathematical calculation," Ed explains. "You can do the math several different ways to get to the result, but some ways might be faster or more efficient—"
"Or even more aesthetically pleasing," Al adds, grinning.
Ed rolls his eyes. "Anyway, there are a lot of ways to get to the final result, but some are better than others. I'd play a game with Roy to see how close he could get to my arrays, and that helped him learn new arrays to use and to be able to draw on at a moment's notice when he has to."
Stopping in his tracks almost makes Ed run into Morgan. "Are you telling me that those fancy circles I keep seeing, they're calculations?" he asks.
"They are!" Al cheerfully confirms.
"What kind of calculations, exactly?"
Raising an eyebrow, Ed says, "Think stoichiometry calculations, only to scale with actual effects."
"So we're talking like… where atoms and electrons and things go?" Morgan asks, reminding Ed that he lives with Spencer Reid so he probably picks up random bits of trivia regularly. Chemistry isn't an easy science course unless you really like math, usually.
Ed crosses his arms. "Exactly that."
"Wait, does that mean you can… transmute iron into gold?" JJ asks.
"Lead to gold is the famous version of that transmutation, and yes, I can do it. So could Al or Teacher or even Roy. It's not a hard transmutation. It is, however, super illegal to do it for obvious reasons."
"Because if anyone could just make money out of thin air, it would collapse the economy," Morgan says.
"Give the man a prize!" Ed exclaims in an exaggerated announcer-like voice.
Al coughs delicately into his fist. "Transmuting gold isn't actually that simple. Transmutations that involve chemical reactions are pretty straightforward, so are changes of state, but when you're getting down to the nuclear level, it gets tricky." Then he grimaces and adds, "Well, it's tricky for most alchemists."
"Why do I feel like that is a standard caveat that should be applied to any alchemy Ed does?" Morgan asks.
"Because you have good instincts, for the most part," Teacher says. "Whenever you're doing a transmutation, you have to have a calculation for how much of your base material you're working with and the calculation for how much of the final material you'll have when you're finished with the transmutation."
Or, you know, have an open-ended calculation that allows you to keep pulling additional material into transmute. Ed is almost certain that adding that nuance is going to get him a glare that says he's making their point rather than subverting it, so he keeps his mouth shut.
JJ looks over at him when Teacher finishes explaining and asks, "And you keep all of those calculations in your head?"
"It's just math," he tells her. It's not like it's hard.
Al bops him lightly on the head. "Forgive my brother. He's brilliant but also an idiot sometimes."
Ed grabs his arm and puts him in a headlock. "Who's an idiot?" he demands.
He feels Al try to twist his way free, but he sweeps their feet out from under them and lands on top of him, which makes Al squawk rather satisfyingly beneath him. His automail is a lot lighter than Ed is used to—that doesn't mean that it's light by conventional standards of the word.
"Boys!" Teacher snaps while Ed keeps the hold on Al. The jiu-jitsu training with Roy has definitely made his holds far more effective than the ones he and Al learned from Teacher as kids. Seeing her standing over them, hands on her hips, that particular glare in her eyes, however, makes them break apart in record speed and bow in contrition.
She sighs at them. "Really, I would think you'd have outgrown this by now."
JJ chuckles. "Speaking as someone with three older brothers, trust me, they never really grow out of it."
Ed glances over and sees a familiar blonde head moving toward them, followed by Scar, with a direct speed that is slightly worrisome. Hawkeye never rushes unless it's urgent, and seeing her and Scar together is also mildly unnerving.
"Colonel," she greets.
He raises an eyebrow at her. "In theory. I don't think anyone's confirmed yet whether or not I've been reinstated."
"You and the General were both listed as Missing In Action, therefore, upon your return, you could be put back into active duty immediately if necessary."
That was both good to know and unusually well-prepared. Then again, Roy had told him on any number of occasions that Grumman was an old fox that Roy still had more than a few tricks to learn from. He decides to just put this one down to Grumman knowing Roy and Ed were big enough chaos coefficients to just expect them to pop up again at some point and make plans accordingly.
"Does that mean I need to put the uniform on again?" he asks in distaste.
She doesn't sigh. Last he checked, Ed is not irritating enough to make her sigh. That was a response usually reserved for Roy alone. She does, however, do an astonishing job of giving the impression of sighing without actually doing it. "I'm sure that the soldiers would be relieved to see you back in uniform if you would deign to do so," she says. Ed grimaces because that uniform in this fucking heat is going to suck . Roy's not even here to taunt with it.
"I'm not sure the Ishvalans would," Scar says behind her. "The Fullmetal Alchemist may be a dog of the military, but he was never considered an icon of it the way the Flame was. Seeing him in plainclothes is likely to be more reassuring to my people."
She shoots a cool you dared countermand me? glare over her shoulder, but Scar is apparently immune. Ed wonders if that's a sign that he may still have some self-destructive tendencies he's not keeping such a good lid on.
"We can discuss whether you should be appropriately attired later, sir," she continues. Which is a yes, you should be in uniform, sir, if he's ever heard one. He allows himself a wince but doesn't argue. If Hawkeye thinks it's that important, it probably is. "More importantly, we came to let you know that a Xingese delegation has been spotted coming from the west."
Ed frowns. "A Xingese delegation? I mean, are we sure it's not just traders? The whole point of this place is to have a waystation, right? What makes you so sure it's a delegation? And shouldn't there already be Xingese delegates here? I mean, I kind of thought that Al and Mei kind of were the ambassador-type things, or whatever."
"We are," Al confirms. "If there's a delegation coming, then…"
"They were flying the emperor's personal sigil," Hawkeye informs.
Well, fuck.
"The emperor?" JJ asks.
"Al?" Ed asks.
"Yes?"
"I hope you're not that attached to your wife."
"She's not my wife yet, but why is that?"
"Semantics. And because I'm going to kill her."
Al gives him that pure now-Brother look he reserves specially for Ed. "How do you know she has anything to do with this?"
"Because she's his fucking cousin and the only person I know who can do that kind of distance alkahestry to contact him. If you tell me she doesn't keep him apprised of things going on here daily, I'm going to call you a fucking liar."
Given the stubborn way Al sets his shoulders but doesn't argue, Ed knows he's right.
"What's wrong with this emperor coming?" Morgan asks.
"Nothing—" Al says at the same time Ed says, "Everything."
Al gives him another stern look. Why couldn't Ed have gotten that look from Mom? "There's nothing wrong with Emperor Ling Yao coming. It's just unanticipated."
"I swear to Truth, Al, if he suggests I join his harem again—"
"He wouldn't!"
"It's fucking Ling ," Ed points out flatly. "I don't care if it's been two days or twenty fucking years. You know how he is."
"Well, maybe if you hadn't—"
Ed slaps a hand over Al's mouth and glares. "Roy's not here. He's going to be insufferable. "
"Yes, well, that's not exactly new, is it?" Winry points out with far too much logic.
"So… you have a history with the emperor?" Morgan asks, raising his eyebrows.
Sighing, Ed drops his hand from Al's mouth. "Don't," he says. "Just… don't."
"You never know, Brother. Ling might have calmed down," Al says.
Ed doesn't mean to snort; it just comes out. "And Roy's ego might have shrunk."
He sees Al's lip tremble while he's trying to remain serious, but Winry, Teacher, and even Scar all scoff at that. Ed just gives Al a look that says, see?
Huffing, Al says, "You'll just have to see, won't you?"
He supposes he will.