Disclaimer: Don't own it, leave me alone.

Author's Note: Gomenasai! I'm so sorry this took so long to update! And if you notice, I shortened the chapter. I'm gonna try to revamp this entire thing (without actually deleting it) and shortening all of the chapters, thus creating more chapters. So, if you guys get a zillion and one updates for this story, just ignore them. I'm gonna split them in half and then try to make the futures chapters at least 5 pages. This one is seven. Okay. Enjoy! And the plot thickens...

Chapter 10: Scars

Isabel was sitting at a table in the cafeteria downstairs from the dorm area. She hadn't been able to sleep. Memories from her past had surface again. She kept remembering the day she'd left Rizenbul nine, almost ten years previous. She could literally see the sunrise through her mother's window as she walked into the room. She remembered her mother's expression when she'd been sleeping. She could remember exactly how the room had been arranged. She could remember the pain she'd felt as she had kissed her mother goodbye before leaving. Even the second thoughts that had plagued her were feeling familiar. She could remember going into her brothers' room and telling them a quiet goodbye.

But the biggest question that seemed to beat at her was why she had left. She knew why she had left. It had been very clear. It had just been this thing she had to do. She hadn't been able to do it in Rizenbul; the small town hadn't had the technology available for it. Leaving Rizenbul had been hard, but it had been the right thing to do so long ago. Working for the military had seemed to be the right thing, but she had been questioning it lately. Returning to Rizenbul had definitely been the right choice, though.

Things probably would have been different in any possible way, even if she hadn't been there. The assassin still could have tried to kill Edward, or it may have only been some occurrence triggered by her presence. Isabel could have ended up in a hospital that day, regardless of her location. Someone could have tried to assassinate Ed, wherever he had been and someone would have tried to save him. There were thousands of possibilities, but she would never know them. She didn't want to, either.

The chains of events in her life were not always good, and they were not always bad, but there was nothing she would give to change them. Her past had shaped who she was now for the better. Her hardships had helped her become stronger and taught her to not let her guard down during the smooth spots in life. Every day had brought her closer to knowing that one thing that drove her, that urged her to keep going.

But if she were ever going to have enough energy to fulfill the goal she so wanted, that kept her living, she would have to get some sleep eventually. It was probably around two in the morning, and they were leaving around seven for their train to Central. She could sleep on the train, but she would want to talk to Ed about each other's priorities.

So Isabel stood from the table and looked around. There were night guards, about to go on patrol or those who had just been relieved from it, scattered throughout the room. The majority of them had coffee and a book or newspaper to read. Some just had coffee. They all had a long night in front of them, though, and Isabel didn't envy them.

She left the cafeteria quietly and headed up towards the dormitories. When she came to the hallway where it split for the elevators or stairwells, Isabel stopped. She was halfway considering which way to go and halfway considering if she should go at all. She wasn't really tired, and could probably go to an all night library for a few hours before really being ready to sleep.

Isabel shook her head. If she did that, she would probably fall asleep, face down, on a book and not wake up until after their train had left. So she turned down the hallway towards the stairs. She needed the exercise. Her lack of training and all of the good country food Auntie Pinako had been cooking for her was adding up into a few extra pounds. When she was in the stairwell, she looked up through the center. It was a long way up, or a long way down, depending on where you were. Luckily, Isabel wasn't afraid of heights. So she started to climb the stairs slowly, questioning each step higher. She really didn't want to go upstairs to sleep. She actually had too much energy to sleep now. But there was a lot she had to do tomorrow. She had might as well try to sleep.

About two flights of stairs up, Isabel stopped and really considered going back downstairs to the exit to go to the library.

"This is ridiculous!" she said to herself and ran up the stairs. She stopped two more flights up and exited the stairwell. "You're arguing with yourself whether you want to sleep or not." She walked down the dormitory hallway until she was about four doors down from hers, Al's, and Ed's room. She stopped because she heard something out of place for the hallway so late at night. It had been a whimper of some sorts, and it threw her off guard. Disregarding it as something brought on by her frustration, she continued towards the room. But the closer she was to her door, the more she heard the whimper.

Isabel quickened her pace, telling herself it was just further down. But when she was outside of her door, she heard the sound coming from inside. She quickly opened the door to find two beds empty—hers and Al's—and Al over at Ed's bed. Isabel stepped further into the room and saw Ed tossing and turning in his sleep and Al trying to wake him.

"What's wrong?" she asked Al and walked over to him.

Al looked at her, startled, "Brother is having a bad dream."

Isabel pondered this for a moment before turning her attention to Ed. He seemed to be having a very bad dream from the way his subconscious was reacting. She worried for him and tried to wake him.

"Ed," she said softly and touched his shoulder. He shirked away. "Edward, wake up."

------------------

There was a sudden clang. A jolt rang through Ed's body. His eyes were squeezed shut, so it was impossible for him to tell what had happened.

"Why you!" It was Barry's voice, sounding angrily puzzled.

Ed opened his eyes and realized he'd blocked the knife with his automail leg. He looked up further and saw that Barry was swinging the knife down again. Ed used the momentum as the blade came down on his foot to push him sideways. He twisted his leg so his foot hit the ground and propelled himself up. Once he was stable on his feet, he ran the opposite direction from Barry. Winry screamed again from her confines.

Ed couldn't focus on her know. He kept running away from the crazed man until he bumped into one of the dead hanging pigs. Barry was hot on his heels and beginning to swing the sharpened blade towards Ed. The young alchemist forced himself to move again. No sooner than he'd taken two steps did he hear the knife slicing through the meat.

Suddenly, the air was rushing towards Ed much faster and colder than when he'd been running. Then the cold floor was beneath his chin. He let out a pained growl as he skidded and turned onto his back. He moved himself backwards with his feet and hand, the metal pole staying with him. Barry was right in front of him, making sick gurgling noises and breathing heavily in the excitement.

Ed didn't think. He let out a cry and swung the pole for all he was worth. It moved freely for a few moments, then it caught on something. He opened his eyes and saw Barry stepping away from him, gaze transfixed on the blood pouring from his hand.

The young boy jumped up and ran away again. He didn't stop until he hit the corpse of a gutted pig. Coming back to reality and remembering Winry, he looked over at where the girl was still chained by her wrists. He ran over to her and tried to unhook her bonds. He fumbled a few times and cursed under his breath. He didn't notice Winry looking towards Barry and willing him to unhook her chains.

Barry's maniacal laughter could be heard echoing through the meat locker. Then his footsteps replaced his laughing as he reached Ed and Winry. The crazed man swung the knife again, but Ed jumped back away. There was a clatter behind him as Ed bumped into the table. He turned to see what had fallen off the table and saw his automail arm fall on the ground. He started running again, away from the danger and towards his hope. Ed bent to grab his arm and continued running back into the maze of meat. A few yards into the hanging pigs, Barry started laughing again at the chase Ed was putting up. He turned to see how close Barry was to him. The man wasn't in sight yet.

As Ed was whipping his head back to face forward, he tripped over a sliced piece of pig. Before he knew it, the abundance of hope was sliced down to mere slivers from his ill-omened fall. But he quickly stood up, his automail arm still in his other hand. Knowing what he had to do, and knowing what pain it would be, he inserted his arm back into the dock. There was a metallic clang that hummed around him as the automail attached itself to the dock. Accompanying it was Ed's cry of pain. Faintly, he heard Winry's worried whimpers behind him.

While he was still cringing from that overwhelming ache in his shoulder, Ed was oblivious of the threatening presence around him until the mass of meat beside him was shoved out of the way. He looked up and saw Barry, brandishing the knife to his side. Then he brought his arm in, across his chest, making that disturbed breathing noise still.

Ed didn't know what he was doing. He just clapped his hands together and dragged his real hand across the plate on his automail. The blue alchemic light flashed for a few seconds and there was a blade coming out of his automail. Barry's laughter alerted Ed that the man was about to start slashing, so he lifted his arm in front of his face, just as the blade came down. And down it came again, and again, and again. The force made his automail move closer to his face, but Ed pushed it back. Suddenly, there was a pain in his flesh arm. Then he felt blood trickling down from the throb. The two happenings altered, the pressure on his automail and then the stabbing pain in his arm. It seemed to go on forever. Would it ever stop?

Then, there was a sudden change. Barry made a distressed noise and began falling forward onto Ed. The boy looked up first and saw that the man still had the blade in the air. The alchemist quickly knocked it away. There was an expression of dismay on Barry's face, like his brand new toy had been taken away from him before he'd been able to play with it.

Ed ignored it. He wasn't thinking anymore. He was acting on instinct. The young boy drew his arm back and let out a yell. As he was about to thrust the blade forward, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't!" a deathly familiar voice shouted.

Ed's eyes widened as he recognized Al. But he couldn't stop himself as he swung the blade around to release the fear and rage kept inside of him. He screamed in his emotion as metal came in contact with metal. There was a slicing noise and then a hollow clang that followed. What had he done?

Al touched the afflicted spot on his armor. "I won't die just from that," he said softly.

The older boy looked at his brother in shock. Had he been about to kill that man? Thanks to Al that he hadn't done it. He was barely aware of the military cop that rushed in. He only knew what was happening between him and his brother. "A-Al." Tears streamed down his face as he breathed his brother's name.


-----------------------

Ed's eyes opened and immediately fixed on Isabel. She recoiled slightly from the suddenness of his gaze, but quickly took his hand again. "Edward," she said quietly.

He merely looked at her, unable to register why she was standing right there looking so concerned for him. Had he been talking in his sleep again and saying how he really felt about things? God, he hoped not. Then she and Al would have found out a lot of weird things. But since he had no idea whether he should be embarrassed or not Ed sat up and took his hand away from Isabel. "What?" he snapped, pretending to be angry that they'd woken him. Actually, he was curious. It was probably about three in the morning. They should all be asleep so they could catch the earliest train.

"Y-You don't remember?" Isabel stammered, seemingly shocked.

Oh, God, he had been talking in his sleep! Maybe if he apologized now, Isabel wouldn't kill him. "Look, whatever I said, I was asleep! I didn't—"

"God, Edward, you're so stupid!" she practically yelled at him. "You were thrashing in your sleep, like you were having a nightmare of someone trying to kill you! You had me and Al worried to pieces! What were you dreaming?"

Ed let out a relieved breath. His secrets were safe. "Good question," he replied curtly. "What was I dreaming?" He leaned back and thought back into his sleep. He honestly didn't remember anything. The last thing he could recall was not being fully conscious as Isabel left the room about two hours after he'd gone to sleep. Before that had been him turning on his side, his back facing the wall, and telling Al good night before falling asleep. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. "I don't know," he yawned. "Can I go back to sleep?"

"No. What were you thinking about before you went to sleep?" Isabel asked. Why did she want a part in his nightmares? It didn't bother him one bit. But now that she had mentioned the probability of him having a nightmare, it was going to drive him insane until he remembered. But he would do that without them.

He sighed and turned on his side once more, his back facing his siblings. "It doesn't matter," he growled and covered his head with the blankets. There was silence, but he could tell that Isabel was glaring at him. He could feel her stare boring holes in the back of his head. So he gave in without a fight. It was better than waking up all of East City with an argument and giving Colonel Mustang something else to pick on him about. "Old case files," he mumbled.

"What?" He imagined Isabel leaning forward.

Ed pulled the lifted the blanket off his head momentarily. "I was thinking about old case files!" he said, louder than the first time.

Isabel sighed loudly. "Which ones?"

"Now that doesn't matter. Go to sleep, I—" Ed had to stop, because he had a sudden literal painful memory. He sat up and grabbed his left forearm, cringing.

"What is it?" Isabel and Al asked in unison. "Ed, what's wrong?" the eldest insisted to know.

"Nothing," he said truthfully. "Nothing's wrong. It just hurts." Finally, Ed looked down at his arm. He only saw the scars from the Barry the Chopper incident. He could remember precisely how he'd gotten the scars, exactly how scared he'd felt, and the exact look of fear in Winry's eyes. He remembered the crazed gleam on Barry's face and the way his insane laugh sounded. Ed could remember the feeling as the butcher knife had been thrust into his shoulder.

"Barry the Chopper," he said, pushing the pain away. It wouldn't do any good to let it bother him.

"What?" Isabel looked thoroughly confused.

But Al knew what his brother was talking about. "Three years ago, in Central, Brother and I were involved in the Barry the Chopper case. Brother helped bring him to justice, but—"

"Quiet, Al," Ed interrupted. "She's probably read all about that case on that sheet of paper she keeps in her left jacket pocket. You don't need to tell her."

Isabel fumed. "You've been going in my stuff? How low is that?" she seethed. "And don't you say that just to start an argument. If that's what you want, you're not getting one." Isabel paused and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I read about that case on that sheet of paper I keep. I know the person who helped investigate it, distantly of course. You're lucky to be friends with the man since he's so busy all the time."

"Who?" Al asked.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," Isabel answered. "But anyway. We can discuss this on the train. I'm going to bed. You guys should, too." She looked at them both and tried to correct herself, but Al answered before she could.

"I don't sleep," he told her.

She hung her head. "I know. Sorry. Force of habit," she excused herself with as she climbed into bed. "Good night."

Ed grumbled to himself before pulling the covers over his head again.

----------------------

It was an understood silence. That's all that mattered. No one wanted to say anything, and no one wanted to hear the other's voices. They were all perfectly content to listen to the clacking of the train and the dull hum of other people talking. Occasionally, the sound of the train would change tempos after it entered and exited a tunnel. Sometimes the people would stop talking to each other and there would be a partial momentary silence.

But none of the Elrics felt the need to contribute to the noise that day.

--------------------

The second day of the train ride, things were a bit different. Ed and Al were playing cards enthusiastically. Isabel was sitting next to Al, closest to the window. She had a very good view of Al's cards if she shifted to see. But when they were in a tunnel or passing some trees, she could vaguely see Ed's cards. To tell the truth, his cards were nothing to brag about. He kept winning. Poor Al…he had full houses and straights out the yin yang, but he had no clue that Ed was cheating. All the suit of armor could assume was that his brother had a marvelous poker face.

After about four more rounds with them playing like that, Isabel came up with a plan. She shrugged her sweater off and looked at Ed. "I want to play," she said.

Both boys gave her a look. Ed had his mouth full with the train food when he said, "Fine. Don't whine when you lose."

She smirked as Al dealt her five cards. "I won't, don't worry," she told Ed.

For two rounds, she and Al lost to Ed. But in those two rounds, she'd been able to get a glimpse in his jacket sleeve. That was all she needed to know. During the third round, Isabel took to fanning herself with her cards, discretely so she wouldn't show them off. It was killing her to lose so much, but she would fix that soon. But she would probably lose more since Al was coming in second place with straight flushes.

"This is getting boring," Ed said after the fourth game.

"No, it's not. It's getting hot." She fanned herself one more time before looking at him intently. "Ed, take off your jackets, you're making it worse," she demanded.

He blinked at her. "No." Then he got nervous. "Just because you think it's hot doesn't mean I do," he argued.

"Brother, you're sweating," Al pointed out.

"Quiet, Al," Ed grumbled.

Isabel gave him a triumphant look. "Well? It isn't good to stay in the heat, little brother," she cajoled.

Ed reacted accordingly. He leaned over the table and shook his fist at her. "Don't call me lit—oops." All three siblings looked down at the high status cards that were lying in a pile on the table. Another one—the ace of spades—slipped out of Ed's sleeve for good measure.

Al gasped audibly. "Brother, you were cheating?" he asked accusingly.

The elder boy stammered for a moment before turning a bright shade of red. He seemed not to have a response for that. It wasn't like he could announce he'd been cheating like that.

"You're supposed to be a good influence on me!" Al reminded him.

"It's her fault," Ed finally countered, pointing at Isabel. "How did you know?"

She laughed. "You admitted it, so it doesn't matter how I found out," she told him. "And you should be a better influence on your younger brother, Edo-kun. We don't need two of you running around causing mayhem."

Edward sat back in his seat. "I'm done playing," he said huffily and looked out the window.

Isabel sighed and looked out the window, too. They would probably arrive at Central Station sometime late that night or at some ungodly hour of the early morning. Regardless, Isabel would petition and enforce that they find an inn since the headquarters building would probably be locked. It would likely be a hard battle, but she intended to win since she wasn't going to sleep in a train station, alchemy prodigy nearby or not. She trusted her brother, but not enough that he would wake up if the situation demanded it.

No, that was something that they would work on, hopefully before it was tested.

But at the moment, all that seemed would be tested was their ability to ignore each other.

-----------------------

Later that evening, when most of the people on the train were asleep, Ed was writing a letter. He'd written and rewritten the words numerous times, thinking each time that they could better. But it felt like every time he wrote the words, they only seemed worse. Thus why he had written the letter so many times. There were about six or seven pieces of paper balled up and crumpled on the table near the window, all rejected letters. He knew he should just stop trying to write the letters, but there was just something in him that wouldn't let go. There was this feeling inside him that wouldn't let him stop trying to write those words. It was silly for him to keep on writing if all he was going to was ball them up and forget about them.

It was hard, it was frustrating, but Edward finally wrote one last copy of the letter. He read it over a few times before deciding what to do. He placed his automail hand over it and was about to draw his fingers in to make a fist. But he stopped himself. He shook his head and removed his hand. The paper was a little distressed looking where his hand had been. There was a faint outline from the weight of the automail.

But it wasn't as heavy as it had been. He remembered her words to him on that day.

"I made your automail eighty percent lighter than last time. We wouldn't want the weight to keep you from growing...since it's lighter, it's less durable, so don't get reckless with it."

He shook his head and covered the paper with his hand again. Ed wasn't in a mood to reminisce. But he wasn't in a mood to sleep, either. He wasn't really in a mood for anything. He could say that would be considered restlessness. He was so anxious to get to Central to find that research paper. There was a faint, nagging thought in the back of his mind, though. He couldn't exactly identify it, but he knew that whenever he felt it, something was bound to turn out bad.

Yeah, he felt it a lot.

But this time, he felt it more so. He didn't want to acknowledge the fact that something very wrong was going to happen. He wanted to believe that he would fine the key to the Philosopher's Stone, transmute it, and get Al his body back. That was all he wanted to do now. After that, he would plan things. But something in the back of his mind told him that things wouldn't be so easy. He wanted to ignore that voice, but he found it hard to. The more he thought about it, the more it clawed its way to the front of his mind, to his waking thoughts, and became more apparent. Unease took over, and Edward began to squirm in his seat.

Although the nagging thoughts weren't unusual, unease was for Ed. It wasn't something he was used to feeling. He was usually in charge and knew just what he was going to do, even it if meant breaking a couple rules. He broke rules anyway, whether it was necessary or not. It wasn't in Ed to do things accordingly all the time.

With a deep sigh of resignation, Ed leaned his head on the train wall and shut his eyes. He didn't know what to do anymore. One moment, he was sure things would turn out okay. The next, he had no clue if the next five minutes wouldn't put him in a depression.

Isabel suddenly started coughing in her sleep, startling him to the point of almost falling off of the seat. He looked at her and though her eyes were still closed, she looked like she was about to wake up anyway. He could have ignored her and gone on with his thinking, maybe calling for a glass of water, if the coughing hadn't been so violent. He couldn't help but watch her in concern. Finally, she woke up and covered her mouth.

"You need some water?" Ed asked her. She nodded her head distinctly and continued coughing violently. He jumped up out of the seat, over Al, and out into the aisle. Then, a little more calmly, he went down the walkway to where there were bottles of water kept. He snatched one up and then hurried back over to Isabel. She had stopped coughing for the most part, but she still looked like she was having a hard time breathing. He handed her the bottle, but looked a little surprised to see a strange film covering her hands. "Isabel?"

She shook her head and reached for a rag to wipe it away. "Don't worry about it, Ed," she rasped and then opened the water bottle. When she was finished drinking, the bottle was halfway empty already. She took a deep breath and set the container on the table. She looked in pain almost.

"Does that usually happen?" he asked, pointing at her hands.

She looked out the window. "Sometimes," she replied dismissively. "Go to sleep, Edward. We'll be there in a couple hours."

He wanted to argue and felt that he needed to, but he highly doubted that she would answer any questions. She was almost as stubbon as he was! So he just figured he would catch her at a weak moment and interrogate her about it. There was something highly suspicious about her cough. He had noticed it in the past couple weeks, yes, and that she was increasingly having problems with her training. But, until now, he hadn't seen it this badly before. Maybe it was just a bad chest cold? That didn't sound right. Still, he couldn't do much now. She had dismissed the subject and that was that. They were so alike in temperaments that he knew she wouldn't say anything else.

So he dropped it. He leaned the side of his head against the train and let the constant noise lull him to sleep.

-----------------

Sorry for all of the "LadyRiona has updated story: blah blah"! I felt like I needed to shorten these chapters. And I actually sat down and did it in one day! -surprise- Well, I hope you guys are enjoying this!