"Well, your arm is fixed. I guess I should be going now." Winry said. She packed up her toolbox, putting away all the spare parts. She tried to mask her sadness, but it was hard when they were all sad.
"I'm sorry Ruby left, but you can't blame her." Al said. Ed and Winry looked at him. "She feels scared and alone. I remember when I though I had just been created, all my memories fake, and all I wanted was to be left alone." Ed sighed and Winry said good-bye as she left them to return home. Ed walked over to the couch, lying so his back was to the world. "Brother, you still love her, don't you?"
"Well what do you think? If I didn't, why would I have gone through all of that to get her back?" The sharpness of his words kept Al silent.
Ruby shivered in the chill night air. She still hadn't seen any sign of the other homunculi and she needed a place to stay for the night. She had just checked the old church building but they had left. She found herself wandering toward the edge of town when she thought she heard a dog bark. She turned around only to see a quiet town, growing dark as the people began to turn in for the night.
"Where are they?" She whispered. She kept walking, closer to the desert with every footstep. When she reached the end of town, she saw a faint footprint in the sand. She headed out, trying to find a place she could stay until morning when a voice called her over.
"I thought you were with the Fullmetal boy," Ruby turned to see Lust standing behind her. She looked down at her feet.
"I decided I should be with others of my own kind." She replied. Lust seemed a bit shocked at first then smiled with new understanding.
"You've made a good choice. Follow me. I'll take you to where we're staying." Ruby followed her quietly to a small cave dug out of a sand dune. Outside, Envy was playing with Sammy, only half-heartedly. When Lust approached with Ruby, Sammy ran over, barking his greetings. Envy stood up. "Looks like your wish came true." Lust said, glancing at Envy. She turned to Ruby. "You can choose your name now."
"I think I want to stay Ruby." She announced, feeling a little more at-ease.
Ed and Al sat around a small fire, waiting for sleep to come as they thought about their next destination. Since there was no reason to stay in Moroa any longer, they'd left for the desert after Winry left.
"I just don't get it," Ed sighed. He stared down into the depths of the fire. "Everyone I care about always leaves me." Al looked at him.
"I didn't leave you, brother. And you know that can't be true. Look at Winry, and Rose. They've left for a while, but we always see them again." Al put more wood on the fire.
"But I almost lost you! First it was Mom, then I thought Ruby, can't forget little Nina." Ed listed those he had lost, or up to a few days ago thought he had lost. Al looked down at the ground. They had lost a lot. But for Ed, what he lost that day was more. "I'm going to sleep now. See you in the morning, Al."
"See you in the morning, brother."
Ruby sat facing the moon, drifting in and out of sleep. Sammy was by her side, occasionally twitching in his dreams. Gluttony had fallen asleep in the dugout in the sand, and Lust behind it. Envy had been sleeping outside the entrance to the dugout, but dreams had woken him. He looked over to a sand dune a few feet away.
"Can't sleep?" He asked. Ruby turned to face him and shook her head.
"I'm just thinking," She answered quietly. It was true; she was thinking if she had made the right choice. Envy walked over and sat next to her. He could tell what was bothering her.
"Do you miss them?" He asked. Ruby sighed, looking down at her feet. "You'll get over it. Don't worry," Envy smiled when he saw she was asleep. He looked up at the sky. It was a clear and bright night, the moon large and full.
It was still dark when Ruby woke up, but it was beginning to get light out. She looked next to her and saw Envy sleeping there. She stood up to stretch her legs. She walked a short way away. She saw smoke in the distance and decided to check it out; half-hoping it was Ed and Al. When she got nearer, she saw the outline of Al still sleeping then Edward appeared as she got closer. He was still asleep, too, and she knew she shouldn't wake them. Instead, she took off her locket, pulling the small pin that held the two halves together out. She put the pin in the hot ashes, separating the two halves and looking at the pictures on them. The half on the chain held a picture of Ed around the age of eleven. The back half held her picture; taken only a month before she was killed. She took the pin out of the ashes. She was very careful in handling it as she wrote on the back half of the locket a short message. When she was done, she put the half with Ed's picture around her neck again, leaving the back half in Ed's left hand. She walked away, hoping no one noticed she was gone when she got back.