Chapter Twelve: Their Separation

Nii-san,

I don't know if this is going to work or not… but we tried our best to create the ultimate Zeppelin to send to you. There is no way that this could possibly reach your world, but I am praying that something will carry it there. If you end up getting this letter I want to let you know that one day we believe we can reach space with rockets, I will come back to you brother. Your probably thinking about a way to bring me back, don't try and risk your life brother, look after Winry and Grandma Pinako, I am not supposed to tell you this, but Winry really needs you she told me once, don't leave her alone Nii-san… I really am happy here I have met a man that looks like you and is interested in this sort of thing he is a genius… just like you, but anyway don't worry about me is what I am trying to say we will meet again Nii-san.

I looked over the scenery as the train went along the tracks. Ever second seems like a god damn eternity. I was spacing out as I usually did; it wasn't long till I reached the famous city of red water and demanded answers from the man who had once blindly chased after his fathers dream. Wait for me Winry I promise I'll be back for you soon. I have to do this, my brother comes first.

I opened my eyes heavily, feeling immense pain all over my body. "Oh my Miss Winry what a relief, Edward looked like he was about to tear down the building when he found you like that." The woman said to me sighing with relief. She looked kind and gentle enough and wiped the sweat from her forhead. "He would have fired me for sure, that fire in his eyes… Miss I know it's a bit too early but do you remember what happened?" She asked me. She was right it was too early. I was confused about everything. The only strong evident memory in my head was confessing to Ed and having my heart broken… that didn't happen every night. I felt my tears well up in my eyes over the memory and looked away painfully sitting up. My body…

"I think I was in the shower… and I must have... I don't know." I said putting my finger to my chin thoughtfully. I had been tired lately, really tired, and this situation with Ed really wasn't helping.

"That's right Mr. Elric found you in the shower, it seemed you were somehow knocked unconscious."

I looked down at myself to see I was wrapped in a bathrobe; I was naked underneath. I observed the huge bruises on my hips. I must have fallen onto my hip bone. Despite the bruise on my hip, the rest of my body also felt extremely heavy and numb, wait a minute. "Edward found me in the shower?" I blushed, hoping to god that some woman had carried me out.

"That's right he was so admirable! He kicked his boots off and everything, then jumped into the flooded shower to retrieve you. The story has spread around very quickly, he was desperately worried." She sighed placing her chin on her hand.

"Eeeeh?" I squeaked, blushing furiously. The thought of Ed doing that and seeing me without any clothes on deeply embarrassed me and I looked away.

"Is something wrong? You were unconscious, what was he supposed to do leave you in there?" She asked me with confusion. I suppose she is right, but that isn't doing anything for the blush.

"Where is he now?" I questioned my whole body tingling at the thought of Ed holding my body in his arms. I shivered a little at the thought, the woman staring at me curiously but I gave her a reassuring smile.

"He left, he had some business to attend to. I was told to tell you this message from him." She coughed a little and straightened herself. "Winry I am going away for a while I shouldn't be to long, I promise I will be back soon for you and… I'm sorry…" Well something like that anyway he definitely said I'm sorry and according to the Colonel he looked pretty upset."

"He left me here at a military base alone?" I yelled with sadness, bowing my head in shame. Why the hell did he leave me all alone? Couldn't he just wait a few god knows till I woke up? Why?

"It's been a day, he will be back soon, don't worry too much. When you feel you are ready Colonel Roy Mustang has asked to see you, so clean yourself up and meet me outside when your ready to be escorted to the Colonel." She then stood up and saluted me before heading out the door.

"Ed…" I whispered longingly. "You better not get killed."

I stepped off the train with a loud groan of frustration. First of all it was an extremely hot day in this city and second I had no idea where Russel and Fletcher were. Just as I was about to scream in annoyance for not planning these things ahead, I saw Fletcher directly in front of me. I blinked twice and suddenly realised why I hadn't noticed him straight away. He had changed.

"Edward." He said with happiness in his voice. I looked down at him, just looked down at him, since he was only slightly smaller then me. His hair had darkened almost unnoticeably and he had a mature sort of aura glowing around him.

"Fletcher…" I asked with shock, noticing him laugh at my reaction. I was greatly thrilled that he hadn't grown taller than me.I knew I wouldn't be able to say the same thing for Russel, who was a year younger, but would undoubtedly be taller than me. I braced myself for the sarcastic comments that would come from him, and tensed my face a little. "Why are you here?" I asked, snapping out of my night-mare.

"My brother knew you would be coming, he says that you're predictably spontaneous. And that you would head for here as soon as you received the letter from your brother." Fletcher giggled turning to lead me out of the station. This comment slightly angered me but I held it inside. I wasn't going to snap at the little brother.

"What do you know, what are you two hiding from me about this?" I questioned pulling out the piece of paper from my pocket.

"We know more than you think. Don't worry we are going to explain to you everything just be patient." He said reassuringly. "Haven't you grown?" He asked with delight in his voice. I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Well I am the same height as my auto-mail mechanic which is good enough for me. Now I can stop feeling so inferior to her… when she brings out the wrench… and when I used to have a crush on her she rejected me because I was too short… that really hurt my pride." But it was along time ago, I don't feel that way anymore… do I? I froze, my eyebrow twitching as I thought about what she would do to me when I got back to the military base. It's my fault for leaving her alone, I should let her do anything she wants to do to me when I get back, and just hope she doesn't bash me to death.

"Edward, this way." He said breaking me out of my thoughts. I was glad to be distracted from the murder that was Winry's wrench and followed Fletcher through the surprisingly happy town. Fletcher noticed my confusion and grinned.

"The gold has returned."

"How can I help you?" I asked wearily holding my side as the pain increased every time I took a step.

"It's good to know you are well Miss. Winry." Mustang said to me a little too sweetly for his character.

"Ummm yes you called me?" I replied nervously clutching to the green sweater Ed had transmuted for me.

"Yes Winry it's about the Zeppelins. Edward received a clue about his brother's whereabouts, and we now are terribly interested in these machines. If it managed to travel from another world. Yes it crashed and it was unpredictable… but it's amazing that this letter reached Ed from the so called 'beyond the gate', you can understand our interest in the matter can't you?" He raised his eyebrow and I nodded my head frantically. Ed… must be extremely happy to know his brother is okay. Somehow knowing he left for his brother made me feel a little more at ease. This made me smile widely for no apparent reason.

"Yes I do understand, I am so happy for Ed." I grinned.

"With Ed and your skills put together I believe we can build this. Of course we will be bringing in talented mechanics from all over but I believe you and Ed are the key. Can I be trusting that I will have your co-operation in this situation?" Roy said placing his hands together patiently.

I instantly gasped and my eyes widened. "I'm not sure Ed wants that… he said that the military will use them as weapons… and I don't want to take part in creating a weapon, especially if Ed doesn't want me to." I shook my head forcefully and heard Roy let out a loud sigh. I can't betray Ed, not matter how interesting this project may seem.

"Don't be ridiculous that boy only thinks about himself. Why don't you do what you want to do. You want the chance to build this don't you? You find the machine mystifying, you want to find out every possible thing about it am I right?" Roy said persuasively. "I see the want in your eyes when you look at it Winry, don't fool yourself. Forget about the boy, build it Winry." Roy passed me the plans which had been redrawn to make everything clearer for me. "I can't understand anything on that piece of paper, but I can already see in your eyes… that you are fitting everything together. I'm counting on you." Roy smirked.

"I'm sorry I just have to talk this through with Ed." I bowed. "But I'll take these." I laughed nervously realising how incredibly greedy I was being. I then ran out of the room at full speed. At least I would have something to read while he was gone. I shut our room door behind me and leant against the door sliding down it with the paper in my hands.

"That's right Edward I will ask for your permission…" I said flicking through the paper. "But this is truly amazing!" I whispered with admiration in my eyes. " Roy is totally right! This machine is so beautiful. I want to break it apart. I want to find out everything about it! I want to put it together… wouldn't you be proud of me Grandma!" I yelled standing up and jumping up and down with excitement. "Ed will let me build it wont he? Wont he?" I spun around with the papers in my hands. "OOOOOHHHH WONDERFUL!" I exclaimed. "Who cares about Ed!" I kissed the paper and jumped onto my bed. "Time to decipher this code of machine engineering."

I felt a sharp pain in my hips as I did this, and my eyes became heavy. I remembered the woman's words 'Rest up' maybe I should start doing some of that, this was going to take a while.

"Where did the gold come from?" I asked, watching Russel suspiciously glance through a test tube from the other end of the table.

"I don't know, maybe it just grew." Russel shrugged. I wasn't in the mood for sarcasm. I had a sick woman back at the base, and I had a brother stuck in another world. He had better not piss me off, not today.

"That's crap and you know it is, I'm a scientist don't muck around with me, are you re-creating the red water?" I questioned angrily.

"Of course not!" Fletcher yelled instantly, bashing his hand down on the table. I had forgotten the younger brother was a little sensitive on this matter. I was shocked at his sudden action, and so was he, but Russel was just plain pissed off. Fletcher coughed a little apologizing for his abruptness under his breath.

"Besides Edward aren't you here about that piece of paper?" Russel smirked placing the test tube back into its rack. "Or are you here to question me about every little thing that I do?"

"Is this a fake? Did you create this? Because there is hardly any chance of that Zeppelin making it to this world" I yelled slamming it down on the desk. Who would want to play with my emotions?

"There is a very big chance it would make it, if someone let it pass through the gate." Russel said rationally sitting down in front of me, while taking the paper in his hands. I opened my eyes wider and parted my mouth a little. NO, it would not be allowed to pass through the gate.

"Let it pass through the gate?" I asked with astonishment.

"That's right Edward don't pretend that the gate isn't there because it is. If you passed through it, what makes you think a machine can't?" Russel said. Everything actually, how could a machine pass through the gate? Okay so I wouldn't have a clue, but it seemed screwed up.

"If that was at all possible, some-one would have had to sacrifice something for the fee…" I said putting my hand to my chin. "It just doesn't make sense…" To be able to pass through the gate, you have to pay a fee. To see all the knowledge contained inside. It was exactly what I had given up my arm for, to get my brother back, to be allowed to enter to retrieve him. Equivalent trade.

"Yes it does. Someone did sacrifice something, it's simple. Besides look at this paper Edward… does it look like something from our world? Look at the way it has burnt here, look at the fine flexibility of it. I have never seen anything like it. That's why I handed it to the Colonel I thought he would find it interesting."

"Why did you become a dog of the military?" I asked with frustration. It frustrated me when people were so stupid to do such a thing.

"Why do you remain one?" Russel asked. I looked down and changed my expression to one of numb defeat.

"Because I can get secrets I wouldn't be able to without being in it, such as this clue as to my brother's whereabouts…" I said with shame.

"Well what are you waiting for then." Fletcher said with a huge grin on his face. "Go get him back."

I grinned and gave them the thumbs up. "Thanks for everything." And with that I left. Leaving the two brothers with large smiles across their faces as I walked out into the dark night.

Saturn Stars