"Shit." Ed grabbed at Al, tugging him faster down the tunnel. "We're being followed."
A voice echoed in the distance.
"Is it soldiers?" Al's high voice hardened. Determination, maybe, to not panic like before.
"Probably." Ed broke into a swift jog.
He tightened his grip on Al. Only when Al's grip tightened back did Ed realize he'd been holding Al's hand.
Hadn't meant to do that.
Oh, well. It would keep them linked together.
.
Ling Yao had been in prison before, and he wasn't keen on going back.
Granted, it had been a rather short stay, thanks to some batshit crazy serial killer. But the last time he'd simply been arrested as an illegal immigrant. Now he'd made his mark by becoming a thief—a much harsher sentence awaited him.
Edward's archenemy the colonel had found the hidden passage in minutes and dragged most of his troops into it in pursuit of the Fullmetal Alchemist—leaving Ling and Envy outside in the hands of a skinny, floppy-haired second lieutenant.
A perfect time for Ling to slip his cuffs and escape.
He'd been planning to simply run once he was free—the little soldier boy could choose to guard the remaining prisoner, or pursue Ling and probably let Envy escape too.
But as Ling finally managed to slide the metal cuff over his thumb and off his hand, the soldier let out a cry and crashed to the ground.
Ling whirled to face Envy, who wore an expression of smug satisfaction. "What did you do?"
"Relax," they drawled, baring their teeth in a huge, unsettling smile. "Just knocked the little man out."
"Great." Ling sighed. Just his luck.
"Now get me out of these things. We've got to get after the Fullmetal pipsqueak."
"Hmm." Ling tapped his chin in mock thought. "You know, I'm not actually mad at him anymore. He did what any of us would have done—"
"He's got the Stone, idiot!" barked Envy. "Do you want your friend's arm back or not?"
Ling froze. Had he told Envy about that? Had he even told Edward? "How did you—"
"Get these things off me. Let's get it before he gets away."
Reluctantly Ling picked up the fallen soldier's pike and hooked its blade under the chains binding Envy's hands. One solid jerk upward and they were free, flexing their arms with relief.
"Now. The colonel said something about a passageway."
.
Al held tight to Edward's hand. He'd never run so far in his life. Sure, he'd done plenty of laps around the tower, but this was different.
Soldiers were in pursuit behind them, their shouts and torches growing closer with every corner. It felt like he was running for his life.
He should have been collapsing in panic—but once again, Edward's touch kept him grounded.
Embarrassment flooded him as he thought of how he'd clung to Ed, burying his face in his coat. Breathing in his scent, breathing in him.
He wasn't embarrassed that he'd done it—he was embarrassed to admit how good it had felt. He would've happily stayed glued to Ed's side this entire trip, if he weren't worried what the hardened thief would think.
Al had lost count of the twists and turns the tunnel had taken, and he was pretty sure Edward had too. He chose between left and right forks at random, his quick decisions less confidence than desperation.
Al chanced a glance downward, to make sure Selim was still attached to his shirt—
And nearly collided with Ed.
"Fuck," Ed breathed at the dead end of rock they faced.
.
Colonel Roy Mustang had begun his military career as a naive young alchemist, ready to make the world a better place.
He'd soon learned that the world—namely, the military—didn't work that way.
State alchemists did not exist to help citizens. They existed to be human weapons, most likely against other alchemists. And in the most horrifying of cases, against the helpless citizens themselves.
Roy Mustang had ambition. Anyone could see it. Ever since the military had become the kingdom's official ruling body, he had moved steadily up the ranks with his eye on the top chair. Fuhrer Bradley was powerful, after all, but not immortal.
He'd long since graduated from chasing petty thieves, catching wanted criminals. Colonels were above that.
His subordinates were often asked—for no private dared approach him personally—why he continued to fixate on this one.
A nimble-fingered thief, regarded as a hero among the poor and a scourge of the wealthy. An immature brat who had a reputation for using his considerable talents to erect taunts to his pursuers in the shape of a giant hand with the middle finger raised. A powerful alchemist with two missing limbs and a mysterious past.
Roy Mustang needed him. Not for the glory, and not for the reward. Certainly not for all the times the boy had outsmarted him.
The Fullmetal Alchemist was his ticket to the top.
All he had to do now was track two pairs of footprints down an earthy tunnel.
.
"Fuck."
It seemed Greed—or whoever had made this passage—had tunneled underground a considerable distance, but hadn't quite finished this particular branch.
"Turn back?" Al offered. Despite clear efforts to keep his voice strong, his hand trembled in Ed's. "That last branch wasn't too far—"
"Can't risk it," Ed said shortly. His mind pounded. Escape. Protect him. Run. Don't let go. "The other way might be a dead end too."
The only option is forward.
It was a risk, he knew. The tunnel could collapse if he wasn't careful.
"Stay close to me," he ordered Al. He raised his hands, clapped them together once, and touched them to the wall of rock in front of him.
Blue light surged through the corridor as the alchemy worked—a dead giveaway of their location. The shouts of their pursuers strengthened behind them.
This had to work.
The rocks crumbled beneath his hands, the energy creating a shock wave that traveled back and back, knocking out more layers of rock.
Al gasped in awe.
"C'mon," Ed muttered. "Break through."
And just as the energy seemed ready to die down, a massive crack sounded, and the rock dropped away to reveal blinding daylight behind it.
Ed raised an arm to his face, shielding it from the ray of heavenly light. "We're out, Al. We're safe."
.
They were not safe.
The underground tunnel had given way—but as Ed and Al stepped out of the rubble, Ed's heart sank.
They were about halfway up a canyon, on a ledge so neatly cut it could have been part of a quarry.
The sound of rushing water drew his attention. Ed looked up, and his heart sank. The canyon wall formed a natural dam, blocking all but a small spill of water from flooding the canyon.
Essentially, they were in a bowl.
Trapped.
At his shoulder, Al gasped.
Ed turned, expecting more panic—but instead was met with a face of wonder. Al stared at the spray of water near the top of the canyon. It burst into small fragments and scattered into mist before hitting the ground.
"Rainbows," Al breathed, eyes sparkling with disbelief. "I've read all about them, but I never…"
Indeed, the sun was out, catching the mist and creating a kaleidoscope of dancing color.
It was nothing Ed hadn't seen before, but Al was enraptured. His whole face seemed to shine. "It's beautiful."
"Yeah," Ed replied without thinking. He couldn't tear his gaze away from Al.
For a breath, the danger was forgotten, the moment frozen for Alphonse to enjoy.
Ed, meanwhile, enjoyed the way Al's eyelashes brushed against his cheek when he turned his gaze downward, taking in the full scope of the rainbow.
Then Al's face tensed. He blinked twice, rapidly, and turned back to face Ed.
"Someone's coming."
Behind, screamed the voice in Edward's mind, and he whirled just in time to see two figures barreling toward them.
.
They pulled up short, clearly not expecting to be caught.
"Oh, great," Ed muttered, forcing a casually annoyed eye roll. "You two again."
Ling and Envy stared in disbelief, their heads flicking from Ed to Al and back again.
Clearly they hadn't expected him to make a new friend so quickly.
A chill ran through him as he realized what they were expecting: the Stone.
Protect Al. Protect Al.
"Who…" Al trailed off. "You know them?"
"We're friends of Edward's," Ling said blithely, though his expression was dead serious for once. "Here to barter."
"Barter, my ass," Envy cut in. "You know what we want, midget."
Fuck. Ed fought to stay calm. He couldn't let them know the Stone was miles away, useless to all of them. He couldn't let them figure out Al knew its location. He had to—
Protect him. Stall.
I know that, he snapped back. Sometimes his inner voice could be pretty overbearing.
"Yeah, I know what you want." He put his hand to his coat pocket, where he'd hidden it earlier to trick them. "But you're not getting it."
"We're not getting arrested again, either," Ling said, his eyes darting down to the canyon floor.
"Ling—"
A splintering of wood and stone echoed off the rock walls, and Ed had to look.
A gaggle of blue-jacketed men and women burst from what had been a boarded-up exit from the tunnel.
Roy Mustang was in the lead.
"They're here," Ed announced with a sinking stomach.
Al latched back into his arm.
"Give us the Stone!" Envy rocked on their feet, vacillating between fighting for their prize and fleeing.
The military flunkies turned and pointed upward toward their group on the ledge.
Mustang looked up at them, raising one gloved hand to shield his eyes from the light.
The rush of water seemed to be growing louder in Ed's ears. Roaring in his brain, making it hard for him to think.
"Somebody's getting caught, and it isn't going to be us," Ling warned. His weapons were nowhere in sight, probably confiscated upon his arrest, but even empty-handed in a fight, Ling was a force to be reckoned with.
"Nobody has to get caught," Al spoke up, bravely hiding the tremor in his voice. He gripped Ed's coat tightly, as though trying to send a message.
Ed shook his head, bewildered. "How can you say—"
"You're the Fullmetal Alchemist," Al said cajolingly. His brows turned downward in a determined expression, a surprising hardness in his soft face. "There's a huge price on your head. You've never been caught. And there's a reason for it."
Ed blinked in shock. Al…believed in him. Trusted him. It was a foreign feeling, a bit like being punched in the gut—all the wind knocked out of him.
Even with Ling and Envy, his supposed friends, demanding the Stone and threatening violence, Al trusted Ed to get them out safely.
He met Al's wide eyes, which shimmered despite his determination, and inclined his head once.
He could do it. He would. For Al.
His trust was worth something.
"Yeah. You're right."
Al nodded with a small noise of assent.
Below them, Mustang was kneeling on the ground, making etchings with some kind of chalk or ink. Probably working on a transmutation circle to climb up to their ledge.
Water spilled from the canyon wall into a small pool near Mustang's men.
Ed took a deep breath and turned to face Ling and Envy, who glared at him.
"Okay," he began, thinking fast. "Clearly we've got some…things. To resolve. But we're not doing it here with the military at our heels."
Blue light flashed below. The colonel was creating some kind of staircase—slowly, to be sure. But it was forming.
"So." Ed swallowed, ignoring his heart hammering against his throat. "If we all want to get out of this—if you two want the Stone—" he patted his pocket for emphasis— "we'll have to work together for a bit."
He turned to Al, who nodded reassuringly around the frantic look in his eyes.
He looked back at Ling and Envy expectantly. "Truce?"
His two former partners glanced at each other, then down at the soldiers slowly making their way up the canyon wall.
Ling spoke first. "Okay. Truce."
Envy rolled their eyes. "Fine."
Ed let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Thank you," Al breathed, still latched onto Ed at the shoulder.
Ed gave him a small smile. Convincing Ling and Envy had been a roadblock, but they still had to enact a plan together. "We'll get out of here, I promise."
"That was inspiring." Envy put one hand on their heart mockingly, their eyes darting quickly between Ed and Al. "No one can make the Fullmetal pipsqueak shut up and listen. You must be special. Who are you, his boyfriend?"
Heat bubbled in Ed's stomach. He stepped in front of Al. "Don't talk to him, Envy," he snarled, gripping their bicep in warning. "Or about him. Stay away from him."
They surveyed his glare coolly, gaze flickering to where he held their arm. "Wow. Protective much?"
Ed faltered for a brief moment. Of course he was protective of Al—he knew what Envy was like, and Al was delicate. Al didn't need to get mixed up in Envy's cruelty.
Still, Envy's words pulsed in his mind, smirking just like their owner. Who are you, his boyfriend?
No, Al wasn't his boyfriend. They'd only met today, for crying out loud.
But what if…
"Edward," Ling cut in. "Plan?"
Blue light flashed below them once more. Mustang's men were getting closer.
Ed clasped his hands together. Looked at his three allies. One he trusted. The others, he did not.
"Here's what you'll do."
.
Roy Mustang was nearly finished with his next transmutation circle when something flashed above him, and the canyon wall caved ever so slightly.
The four people on the ledge—Fullmetal, his two accomplices, and one boy he didn't recognize—were hunkered down on a slab of rock as Fullmetal pressed his hands to the ground, creating a moving platform down the canyon.
Mustang's men shouted—some in alarm, some in amazement, as Fullmetal rocketed over their heads and back to the ground.
Where were they going? There wasn't an exit from this canyon—just a few cave pockets and the tunnels they'd all come from.
"Back down!" he shouted to his men. "Get back down and apprehend them! Take them alive, if you can. Especially Fullmetal."
The four outlaws hit the canyon bottom and scattered. Fullmetal ran straight for the canyon wall—the wet one, where water sprayed from a crack into a small pool. The others ran for the far wall, toward one of the caves.
Mustang swore under his breath and began clambering back down.
.
Ed sprinted for the crack. If he could just make it there in time, Mustang and his soldiers would be fighting the elements and not him.
He clapped his hands and shoved them into the canyon wall. Light flashed, a bolt of blue lightning shattering into the rock face and creating a spiderweb of cracks.
Water began trickling into the canyon from the new fissures—faster and faster.
Faster than he'd expected.
Oh, no.
.
Al had never run so fast in his life. Behind him, spears thrown by soldiers hit the ground. Ling and Envy grunted as they fought off pursuers, shoving and punching to stay at Al's heels.
Ideally, they could stay a little further back, if Al were being honest. Ed's two supposed friends made his neck prickle.
"Get the other ones," called a deep, authoritative voice. "I've got Fullmetal."
Edward. No.
He was still standing at the canyon wall, looking very tiny indeed.
Protect him, urged Al's inner voice, and he couldn't agree more.
"Ed!"
His shout reached Edward just in time for him to spin and throw up a barrier to the flame.
.
Ed could feel the heat through his hasty wall of rock, surging, pressing through. A few degrees hotter and the barrier would shatter.
He doesn't want to kill. Just incapacitate.
The Colonel needed Ed as a prize—a smoking corpse would never be enough. As always, Ed simply had to find a way to escape.
A deep crack sounded from the canyon wall behind him. More water spurted through, showering Ed—and giving him an idea.
He clapped and slammed his hands into the wall once more.
The barrier between Ed and the Colonel melted away. Ed caught one second of Mustang's shocked expression before the water cannon he'd transmuted shot a deluge of water so strong it knocked the Colonel off his feet.
Flame couldn't ignite if it were soaking wet.
The canyon let out a deep, bone-shaking crack. Actually, this one sounded more like a boom.
The jet of water grew, the edges of the transmuted cannon failing under the pressure.
It would collapse in minutes.
Ed ran.
.
Water washed over Al's feet.
He'd been watching Ed's clever attack on the alchemist who could make fire—soaking him with water made him powerless.
But he'd opened the floodgates, and the dam wasn't going to hold.
The plan had been to distract the soldiers in the hopes they would stop to repair the dam instead of chasing after fugitives.
Now the plan was to run.
.
Ed caught up to Ling and Envy just as a large chunk of rock broke loose and fell behind them.
Mustang's shouts of retreat became increasingly panicked.
Ed smirked. At least he'd done one thing right.
He was at Al's shoulder when a spray of water hit his back.
The tunnel, their escape, was growing closer, closer. Almost there.
Envy yelped uncharacteristically. Ed turned just in time to see them be swept off their feet by a deluge of water.
He reached the tunnel.
The canyon was collapsing.
"Ed!" Ling called out in desperation, knocked off course by the increasing flood. He couldn't fight the sheer wall of water.
Ed hesitated for a split second before a boulder slammed down in the tunnel entrance, cutting Ling's cry for help short.
.
The tunnel was a dead end.
It was dark—not entirely pitch-black, as light seeped around the edges of the boulder blocking the way they'd come in. There was light enough to see how the cave stretched back twenty to thirty steps, then ended in a solid rock wall.
They were blocked in.
Water began pouring in, spilling around the boulder and splashing cold against their toes.
"No." Al's voice was quiet and pleading, almost a whimper. "No."
Ed sloshed over to Al, where he stood with his hands on the back wall.
"It doesn't go all the way through." Al's face was absolutely white in the near darkness. "We're…trapped."
"We're not trapped," Ed retorted. "Don't worry." He clapped his hands and slammed them confidently into the wall of rock, like he'd done earlier. "I'll get us out of here."
Blue light flashed against their faces, giving the cave an unearthly glow. The rocks began to crumble as they had earlier—
But Ed's luck had finally run out.
The cave rumbled and shook, but the wall did not give way.
A small avalanche of stone showered down from the ceiling, battering Ed in a distinctly unpleasant manner. Most of the rocks splashed into the growing pool of water, which lapped at Ed's knees.
Al grunted and shielded his head with his arms.
Ed wasn't so fast. Pain lanced through his left arm and his head. His automail arm couldn't move. Blood began to drip into his eye from a gash in his forehead.
His right arm was trapped under a rock. His left one might have been broken.
No more transmutations.
Water crept higher. It danced at Ed's hips.
"Al," he hissed. "Help me out?"
"You're bleeding," Al whispered.
"See if you can lift this rock. I can transmute us a tunnel out of here."
Al put his hands around the rock crushing Ed's metal hand. He strained to lift it, push it, pull it—but no matter how he tried it wouldn't move.
"I…I can't." He surveyed Ed with anguish in his eyes.
They were waist-deep in water.
"Can you draw a circle?"
Al's head darted frantically around, searching for a place to draw, for something to draw with.
"I…don't know the circle! I can't see to draw. I don't have anything!" His voice rose to a feverish pitch, cracking into almost a sob.
Ed didn't know what it was—the adrenaline rush wearing off, the blood dripping out of his head, tossing his mind like a leaf in a whirlpool, or the protective instinct for Al that had been growing around him like a cocoon—but in Al's panic he felt a sudden calm.
He couldn't let Al drown, not thinking himself a failure.
Ed laid his free hand on Al's shoulder, ignoring the twinge of pain from his injured arm.
He was no failure, this kid. He lived as boldly as the hand he'd been dealt had allowed. He was brave and daring, yet kind. Compassionate. Curious. Mischievous.
Ed would've liked to know him longer.
"Hey. Hey, Alphonse. Look at me."
There was just enough light to see Al's huge eyes, his dismayed expression. Al looked at him with glistening cheeks that Ed wasn't sure had come from the water splashing at their chests.
"It's okay. S'okay. It's not your job to save me. It was my job to keep you safe, and I didn't. S'my fault."
Less than a day into his exhilarating adventure of freedom, and he would drown in a cave with a wanted criminal.
Ed dropped his own gaze, unable to meet Al's eyes any longer. He would accept responsibility, but he wasn't sure he could look the kid in the eyes as they died.
A light touch on his face startled him. Al brushed a hand, feather-light, against his cheek. "Don't blame yourself. Please."
Have to, Ed wanted to reply. It is my fault. My plan.
They could've ridden out the flood with Ling and Envy. Held their breath and trusted the water to carry them somewhere safe. Yet here they were—in a tiny, enclosed space. Together. Trapped.
But Ed didn't want to spend his final moments arguing.
He smiled bracingly at Al, lifting his chin to keep the words from drowning in water.
"You might wanna hold your breath, Al. I…I think this is it."
Al's face went hard, like he was deliberating something. His brow knitted together, and he met Ed's gaze with trepidant determination. "No. It's not."
He clapped his hands and pressed them to the wall.
Electric blue light filled the cavern. The rock crumbled.
Ed's scream of shock was lost as water tumbled through the cavern and washed them away.