I feel like this is dragging, but maybe that's my own impatience? BUT I swear, the next chapter totally makes up for it, because Rush Valley is a goldmine of exciting events! I'll get that one out ASAP since this is a shorter chapter too - I just wanted to get this out because I have to put on my big girl britches and go to the DMV today, so obviously the rest of my day will be terrible. Anyway! At present, the next chapter should be the longest yet, I'm guessing over 10k words. Which is insane, but I'm excited about it! So I hope you all enjoy me FINALLY wrapping up the aftermath of the Fifth Laboratory! As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed and much appreciated. :3
Hughes delivered Lissa back to the hospital under the frustrated glares of a couple orderlies, who sent her straight up to the room with orders to stay put until she was officially discharged. Lissa was just glad they didn't search her bag and declare the pie she was toting to be contraband.
She stepped into the room, and though Ed sat up and greeted her, she only had eyes for the suit of armor sitting along the right side wall, on a stool that looked a bit too small for the task. "Al!" Lissa beamed and rushed over, flinging her arms around him and nearly knocking him right off the stool. He put an arm around her sort of reflexively, but she'd take what she could get. "I'm so glad you're here, saves me having to drag your butt in myself," she teased, stepping back and grinning at him.
Al rubbed the back of his head a bit uncomfortably. "Y-yeah, I came in once everyone else had gone. It was pretty crowded."
"Tell me about it," she snickered. "Hughes didn't tell us it was Elicia's third birthday, so the whole freaking family was there tonight for her birthday party. He was just recruiting more guests when he dragged me and Winry over. They totally adopted Winry, though, so she'll be fine. I love that family, I really do, but I'm still glad to be back with my boys tonight." Lissa pressed a kiss into Al's cheek before turning to face Ed, who was pouting just a bit, arms folded over his chest. "And Ed… I did manage to smuggle something up here for you."
His eyes shot wide. "It had better be pie, Liss."
"Tch, of course it is." Lissa smirked and deposited the box on the table between their beds. "I'm gonna change, but I swear, if you eat all that before I get out here I'll get Winry to make your automail useless again."
Ed snickered. "Fine, fine, I promise I won't eat all of it. But hurry up!"
Lissa gave a tug to his ponytail before ducking into the bathroom to change back into her hospital-provided clothes. She didn't much like them, they were kind of stiff and uncomfortable, but she'd already pushed her luck by leaving that night. It was better not to risk making the nurses any angrier at her.
Despite Ed's impatience, it didn't take her long, and soon enough they were both sitting cross-legged on his bed, happily eating away at the pie. "Man, I'd forgotten how good this was," Ed mumbled through a bite. Crumbs showered down onto his legs as he spoke.
"You're such a messy eater," Lissa told him dryly, rolling her eyes. "Please tell me you're politer about food than your brother, Al, because otherwise I might have to ditch you both."
He actually laughed a bit, hesitantly, but genuinely. "I have much better manners than brother."
"Excellent. All hope isn't lost, then."
Ed glowered down at his lap. "Traitors. Both of you."
"But it does look like you got more pie on yourself than in your mouth, brother," Alphonse observed wryly. "Did you actually eat any?"
Ed groaned and flopped onto his back, dangling the end of his slice of pie dangerously off the edge of the bed. "What is this, huh? You're ganging up on me, it's not fair!"
Lissa grinned across at Al. "It's all out of love, don't worry."
"Psh. Sure it is." He sat back up and stuffed the end of his slice into his mouth, chewing sourly. Lissa knew he wasn't really upset, though, or she would've stopped. "You're lucky I'm still injured or I'd totally kick your ass."
"Whatever you say," she laughed.
With just the three of them in the room, they were able to act fairly normally—Lissa was so happy to see Alphonse coming out of some of the weirdness he'd been showing, though there was still something lingering, something off… Still, he laughed and joked around with her and Ed enough that she felt secure enough to sleep, drifting off with Al's comforting eye glow ever-present at the edge of her vision.
She just hoped he'd be okay through the night.
Both Lissa and Edward slept through breakfast, only to be woken up at lunchtime instead, both a bit exhausted and baffled at waking up so late—usually on the road they were both up pretty early, out of sheer necessity.
An orderly brought lunch by and Lissa forced herself to sit up, yawning and stretching though the latter hurt her ribs just a bit. "Ugh. I'll be glad when my stupid ribs stop aching," she muttered, touching her hand there and scowling. "That spiky-haired bastard… I almost want to see them again, just so I can pay them back for this." She slid her little rolling tray over and settled on Ed's right, her usual spot, though it was better today because Al was still there. She'd almost expected him to leave, but apparently he'd at least moved past his whole focus on staying out of the room.
Ed suddenly went rigid beside her, his whole posture changing. She looked over, half-expecting a bug or something to be on his plate—only to see him glaring furiously at the innocuous little glass bottle of milk sitting on his tray. "So, we meet again, you little bastard," he hissed. "I'm not gonna drink you."
"Not again," Lissa groaned, passing a hand over her face. "We go through this every time."
Al shifted uncomfortably and looked up at him. "Brother… You have a living body that needs nourishment. You have to drink it."
That's a weird thing to say. A living body. What's going on with him?
But Ed wouldn't budge. "I don't have to if I don't want to," he sneered, grabbing up the little loaf of bread from his tray and biting into it fiercely.
"It's a lost cause, Al," Lissa told him with a sigh. "He's never going to drink milk."
Ed gave a firm nod, still scowling a bit, a little petulant about the whole thing. "It may not look like it, but I have grown some. But everyone still calls me a pipsqueak." He sighed and muttered, though a bite of food, "I wish I was like you, Al. You've got such a big body now."
Lissa jerked her head around to stare at him. "Ed, hang on…"
The stool clattered to the floor as Alphonse shot to his feet and yelled, "It's not like I asked for this body, brother!"
Edward slumped over his tray, his expression falling. "S-sorry," he mumbled shamefully. "You're right. It's my fault that it happened… But I'll make it right, I'll get you back into your real body, you'll see, Al-"
"That's what you always say, but you don't know that for sure!" Al shot back angrily.
Lissa felt cold all over, stunned by the outburst, completely lost. Was this what had been bothering him? She'd been wrong that the serial killer had upset him, then, but… Where had he gotten an idea like this? She had never, ever seen him this way. Al was always optimistic about getting their bodies back, getting his own body back, but to doubt it like this… What had shaken him?
Ed looked up at him, his shoulders shaking faintly, though he tried to hold himself together. "L-look, I promise I'm gonna get you back. Believe me, Al, I'll do it."
"Believe you?" Alphonse demanded harshly. "How am I supposed to believe anything when I'm stuck in this body?!" Ed flinched like he'd struck him. "What should I believe in? My memories? Memories are just scraps of information that can be made up as easily as anything else!"
Lissa swallowed hard. "Made up?" she whispered.
"Al, what…what are you talking about?" Ed breathed, staring at him in utter shock. His voice cracked as he spoke, and Lissa thought she could see him falling apart right in front of her.
But Al didn't let up. "Do you remember when you said there was something you were afraid to tell me? I think…" He clenched his fists tightly. "I think I might know what it was. Maybe you wanted to say that my soul and my memories are really artificial constructions you created."
No… What is he talking about? Where did this come from?
"You, and Winry, and Granny…" Al's body shuddered faintly. "You've been lying to me all along, haven't you?"
The door was open. When had the door opened? Lissa only now saw Winry and Hughes in the doorway, with Ross and Brosh behind them, all looking shocked—so they'd heard the argument. And Winry…she looked horrified, so deeply hurt by the idea that she'd been part of some…some awful scheme to pretend Al was a real person…
But he is real. I can sense it, not as strongly as I can other people, but he still feels real… I know it… He isn't created… Ed wouldn't do something like that.
"What do you have to say for yourself, brother?!"
Lissa flinched back as Ed slammed his fists down on his tray, a sudden, blindly-furious reaction that shocked even Al into silence.
"Is that what you really think?" Ed hissed, trembling faintly, his head still bowed. "Have you believed that all this time?" his voice broke, and he paused for a moment, unmoving. Lissa could feel the tremors in the air from his breath hitching. She wished, so desperately, that Al would say something, do something, take it back, anything… But he seemed frozen in place.
"So are you finished? Or was there more you wanted to say?" Ed whispered. A muscle in his jaw clenched, the skin going taut.
Silence. Not a single word.
Ed's mouth twisted into a broken, defeated smile. "Okay." He pushed his tray to the side, stood up, and walked from the room.
Lissa stumbled to her feet a second too late, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Winry tried to stop him, yelled for him, but he just ignored her and vanished down the hall. She didn't know what to do. In all her time with them, she'd never known the boys to fight like this. They had their spats, sure, brotherly arguments that never really got anywhere, but this… It made her heart ache just to think about it.
"Al, you…" CLANG! "Moron!"
Lissa whirled in shock as Winry slammed a wrench down on Al's head, which she'd pulled from…somewhere.
Winry stood over Al's collapsed body, seething, rage burning in her eyes. "Lissa, go after Edward. I'll handle things here with Alphonse."
"Are you sure?" Lissa edged, uncertain.
But the blonde just gave a firm nod. "Absolutely. I've got this under control."
Lissa touched her shoulder lightly as she left, bypassing Hughes, Ross, and Brosh as she headed off to find Ed. She knew how he was when he got upset—he liked open air and solitude, a place to think… So considering he wasn't technically allowed out of the hospital itself, that left only one option. The roof.
Thankfully, her guess was right. She found him up on the roof, standing at the edge looking down over Central, but his gaze was distant, like he wasn't actually seeing any of it. Lissa came and leaned against the railing next to him, for once completely unsure how to handle things. She had seen and handled a lot, in her three years traveling with the boys…but this was different, something overwhelming and new and like nothing she'd dealt with before.
"I didn't know," Ed murmured. "I didn't know he felt that way. That he thought I…created him. Shouldn't I have picked up on that before?"
Lissa frowned to herself. "I don't think he had that in his mind until the past few days… I can't imagine he's just been keeping it in, Al isn't that good at hiding his emotions." She blinked hard as tears pricked at her eyes. "But…I don't know where he got the idea, either."
"He was right that I wanted to talk to him about something… But it wasn't that…" He shut his eyes tightly. "I've always wondered…if he blames me for what happened to his body. It was my fault, I know it was, I pushed us to do that and…" He bowed his head and let out a quiet, sad sigh. "I guess I have my answer now."
"You thought he blamed you? Ed, no, he doesn't blame you, I know he doesn't." Lissa reached out and touched his back lightly, getting him to look at her. "Once he calms down, you can talk to him and you'll see that."
But Ed still looked so deeply sad. "He's gotta live every day looking at me, and how little I lost compared to him. I'm fine. But Al… He can't stay like this. He can't eat, he can't sleep, he doesn't feel when people touch him… I can't even imagine how awful it must be… I'm doing everything I can to help him, but it's…just not enough. And I know that now."
Lissa shook her head fiercely. "But—no, before this, he always acted so differently about it, I know he doesn't blame you. He and I…" She averted her gaze. "We promised each other that we'd look after you, Ed. Years ago. Why would he have bothered with that if he resented you for what happened?"
"You…did what? Why didn't I know about this?" Ed furrowed his brow. "What kind of promise?"
"I mean…it wasn't like we said the words I promise, but that's what it was anyway…" Lissa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, buying herself time to figure out how to explain it. "We just…talked about how you're always looking out for everyone but yourself, and agreed that we'd make sure you never had to handle things on your own…that we'd look after you since you wouldn't do it yourself." She bit her lip as her cheeks went pink, hating the reaction. But she couldn't help it, talking about this with Ed was embarrassing, somehow. "Ever since then, we've held to it like a promise."
Edward looked stunned by the admission. "I…I had no idea. When was that, anyway? Do you guys just talk about me while I'm sleeping or something?"
Lissa rolled her eyes. "It was…oh man, I think it was your first real mission as a state alchemist. That little mining town, whatever it was called. It was so long ago now… But, I mean, of course you didn't know. We didn't tell you. But Al and I agreed ever since then that we're going to look after you, together. So, I mean…" She reached out and grabbed his hands tightly, pulling him closer for a moment. "I know he doesn't blame you, because he wouldn't have done anything like that if he did."
"I…I guess you could be right," he mumbled, though he didn't look convinced. "It's just…hard, hearing him talk like that… You saw the photos, right? Back at Granny's?"
She nodded quickly. She'd seen them—a couple corkboards full of family photos, where she'd gotten to see not just Ed and Winry as little kids, but Al too, tiny and cute and real. There was no faking that. "Of course I did. Besides, he's always felt real to me… I never considered it at all."
Clank. Clank.
Lissa turned, caught between anxiety and hope, to see Al stepping onto the roof behind them. He seemed…different now, like he'd gotten his mind around the situation a bit better.
"Brother-"
"You know something, Al," Ed interrupted quickly, his tone a little too casual, "we haven't had a good fight in a while. I'm starting to get flabby."
Al stared at him in confusion. "Huh?"
Wordlessly, Ed kicked out of his slippers—then he turned and rushed Alphonse, leaping at him with a well-aimed kick. Al gasped and leapt out of the way, dodging Ed's attacks as quickly as he could. "Hold on, brother! Stop!" he yelped. Ed ignored him, coming at him automail-arm-first, which forced Al to block with both arms. Lissa could only watch, stunned stupid as Edward continued going after his brother, not saying a word, never backing down for a moment.
"Your wounds haven't healed enough for this!" Al protested as he kept dodging, refusing to fight back properly.
Suddenly, Ed leapt backwards, flipping midair once, and grabbed a drying bedsheet from where it had been hanging nearby. Quicker than Al could react, Ed flung the sheet up and over him, and used the moment of blindness to kick off the ground and ram his automail foot right into Al's head, knocking him flat on his back.
"I beat you!" Ed declared, standing over his brother triumphantly. "The first time I ever won." Then he lay down opposite Al, his head a few inches away, mirroring his brother's position and panting a bit.
Al tugged the sheet off himself. "That wasn't a fair fight, brother," he muttered.
Ed turned his nose up. "A win is a win and you know it, Al," he denied firmly, sounding almost petulant. "We've always fought like this, ever since we were really little. Now that I think about it, we've fought over some really stupid things, haven't we?"
Lissa smiled to herself, slow and sure. So that's what he was doing—he was just…showing Al that he's real.
"Definitely," Al agreed softly. "Like who would get the top and bottom bunks."
Ed grinned faintly. "Yeah."
"We fought over candy a lot too, huh?"
"And that toy, you remember?"
"I won that one," Al reminded him wryly. "And when we played in the Rain River, too."
"Oh, yeah! You shoved me into the water," Ed recalled, amused.
Lissa leaned into the railing and closed her eyes, just listening to them go back and forth, reminiscing about their childhood. A thread of…not quite jealousy, but something similar tugged at her heart. She had nothing like this. She barely recalled her childhood, the things she'd done or experienced… Most days it was okay, but sometimes it just…made her feel hollowed-out, like something really vital had been scooped out of her insides.
Her attention went right back to the boys when Ed murmured, "You're telling me that all those memories are lies?"
"Sorry," Al mumbled, ashamed.
"And your determination to be whole again, to get your body back no matter what… That's a lie too?" Edward pressed on, not ready to relent yet.
"No. It's not a lie."
Ed clenched his automail fist tightly. "That's right! We're in this together, all the way. Don't forget that. We're gonna keep pushing forward—we'll make ourselves stronger, faster, and better, until we get our bodies back." He lifted his automail arm upwards, stretching it towards the sky as he spoke, and Lissa found herself smiling at the silly power gesture.
Al giggled at him too, though he mirrored Ed anyway. "And…the milk?"
Ed flinched. "Milk?!" He grumbled to himself. "Ugh, fine, I'll drink…a little." Grinning ruefully, he moved his fist towards Al, offering. "Whatever it takes, brother."
In return, Al bumped his fist into Ed's, sealing the promise.
A few moments later, Ed attempted to sit up, clearly happy with the state of things—but he winced and pressed a hand to his stomach when he tried to move. "Oops," he mumbled.
"You dummy," Lissa told him, rolling her eyes. "You overdid it." She sighed and crossed to him, gingerly helping him to his feet with Al's assistance. "Honestly, if you ripped your stitches again I'm gonna tie you to the freaking bed and make you stay."
Ed smirked at her. "I'd like to see you try."
"Don't test me," Lissa warned, though she couldn't keep the stupid smile off her face as Al took Ed's weight from her, clearly feeling a bit kinder than she did. "At this rate they'll never let you out of here, you know that, right?"
"Eh, you'll help me escape," he dismissed easily.
Al giggled at them. "She is right though," he pointed out wryly. "You need to take it easy."
Lissa trailed the two in as they bickered, playfully, heading towards where Winry and Hughes waited on them, just inside the building. She hadn't seen either of them come upstairs, but it was nice to know they'd been around anyway.
"Hey, guys, I hate to be the one to bring you down and all, but since you're feeling better we've gotta get to work," Hughes told them. "Major Armstrong is coming down to hear the story, too—I know you filed reports but we need all the details now, even the stuff you knew to omit, okay? We need to find the guys who attacked you."
Ed and Lissa exchanged pointed looks. "Right," Ed agreed. "We'll help however we can."
—
Back in their hotel room, Ed and Lissa sat down and drew up all the helpful things they could come up with—she carefully traced out the tattoo both their attackers had been sporting, a red ouroboros on the spiky-haired one's thigh and the woman's chest, which was probably significant somehow. He drew likenesses of both creatures, and between the two of them they were able to draw up the transmutation circle on the floor as well, to the best of their abilities. As they worked, they filled Al, Hughes, and Alex in on what transpired inside, and the details surrounding the event. Lissa couldn't hide her discomfort as Ed recounted his battle with Number Forty-Eight, the difficulty he'd had actually winning, something he'd only achieved by using the same trick Scar had perfected.
"I found Ed right after he finished that fight," she explained, crossing her legs underneath her as she spoke. "He wasn't in great shape, so I bandaged him up as much as I could, to hold him over… And we were about to leave, when…" But Lissa trailed off, unsure how to explain this properly.
Ed tapped the drawing he'd done of the woman in the black dress. "When she came in. She had some weird ability, her fingers turned into spears, like nothing I'd ever seen before. She broke the blood seal on Forty-Eight's head to stop him from revealing any information." He irritably scratched an X over her face. "I don't think it was alchemy, either. It didn't have any transmutic energy."
"The other one was sort of genderless," Lissa added on, pointing out the drawing of the shorter, spiky-haired one. "They stabbed through the blood seal in Forty-Eight's torso. And that's when…they called us sacrifices, or at least Ed that time."
"I was going to try and fight them, but that's when my automail gave out. Liss got a hit in on them, but honestly…" He wrinkled his nose. "It didn't do much. It should've been a serious attack, but they didn't even budge—if I took a hit like that, I'd probably be knocked unconscious, so that was…not exactly natural."
Al leaned in curiously. "Do you…think they were actually human?"
"No, I don't," Lissa told him honestly. "Not at all." She frowned at the drawing of the ouroboros tattoo she'd done, just absently, trying to gather her thoughts. "Still, I would've kept trying, but the woman threated Ed and I stopped, because I didn't want to risk it even though she said, well… She said she wouldn't kill him. That's when the other one broke my ribs. They didn't seem interested in killing us, honestly, I did believe that much from her because they could've killed us easily way before that, but they didn't. They purposefully were keeping us alive." Her fingers touched her chest lightly, atop her bandages, remembering the moment. "We weren't exactly in fighting shape after that."
"Yeah, at that point they knocked me down with Liss and that was about it for me. The last thing I remember was this guy kicking me," Ed continued, pointing at the drawing of the spiky-haired creature."
"I heard the woman say something about blowing the place up, and the next thing I knew, I woke up here," Lissa finished, shrugging. "So we know they're the ones that blew it up, at least."
Alex frowned at them. "It's odd that they let you live. And what about this sacrifice business, and these other armored souls?" he mused.
"Not to mention the ouroboros tattoos and the transmutation circle… And Dr. Marcoh claims they were using the Philosopher's Stones in Ishval?" Hughes rubbed at his chin, staring down at the papers like he could find the answer there.
"Every clue we have to work with seems to lead to its own mystery," Alex observed.
Hughes nodded reluctantly. "Not much we can do about that, though. Any answers we might've found are under a ton of rubble back at the lab. And from what you guys said, I doubt these creatures are the type to half-ass the job. There's probably nothing left."
Lissa glanced sideways at Edward, feeling the sting of shame pretty acutely. She didn't like losing any more than he did. "No, I bet they didn't leave anything for us to find."
"Well…" Hughes picked up the drawing Lissa had done of the creatures' shared tattoo. "I'll run a search and see if I can find some priors on anyone with an ouroboros tattoo. It's pretty obvious, so if there's anything in our databases it shouldn't be too hard to find."
"Very good." Alex took the few papers Lissa and Ed had written up about Dr. Marcoh and his research and eyed them thoughtfully, apparently seeing some possibility in there, some line he could follow. "And while you do that, I'll continue looking into the research team that was working with Dr. Marcoh in Ishval."
Someone knocked at the door, and Lissa scarcely had time to swing her legs off the edge of the bed before it opened, and an all-too familiar man walked in.
"Sorry to interrupt," Führer King Bradley told them, smiling benignly.
Lissa felt her heart drop right to her feet as she shot up out of bed, standing beside Edward who apparently had the same thought she did. What the hell was he doing here?! In their hospital room?!
Hughes and Alex snapped to attention immediately. "Führer Bradley! Your Excellency!" Alex spluttered, clearly just as shocked as the rest of them.
But the Führer raised a hand dismissively. "Calm down, gentlemen, this is just an informal visit."
"Yes, sir," Hughes agreed quickly. "But…may I please ask the occasion, sir?" That was Hughes, always wanting information no matter where it came from.
The Führer crossed to smile down at Ed and Lissa. "Why, these young alchemists right here. I heard you're injured." He lifted up the basket he'd been carrying and offered it to Ed. "I thought a nice melon might cheer you up."
A…melon?
Ed stared at it like it might attack him, though he took it anyway. "Uh, I guess…" Then, catching himself, he blurted, "Agh! Thank you, sir!"
Continuing right along as though Ed hadn't slipped up, he added, "I understand you've been checking up on some of the senior staff. Is this true, Major Armstrong?" So that was the heart of it… He wasn't actually checking in on Ed and Lissa… He was seeking information, behind the veneer of a casual visit. How sly of him.
Alex's eyes widened. "Uh…yes, sir… But, uh… How did you know I was…"
"You should know that nothing gets past me, Major," Bradley told him evenly, though his voice carried the slightest undercurrent of a threat. Then he fixed his one-eyed stare on Ed and Lissa again. "And now you, my revered Fullmetal Alchemist, and our academy's most promising trainee…" Most promising? "Tell me what you know about the Philosopher's Stone."
Oh, shit.
"And I hope for your sakes…" His gaze turned severe. "…that you don't know too much."
Lissa knew she was staring up at him much too defiantly, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. What was he playing at? She could feel…something in his demeanor, this strange sense of layering, but she was too anxious to concentrate enough to pick away at it, let alone open her senses entirely. To come in all benignly and then act like this… What the hell was going on?
Then, Bradley's expression shifted, and he began to laugh uproariously, like he'd just told the funniest joke ever. "I'm only kidding!" he told them brightly. "Goodness, there's no reason for you kids to be so uptight." He patted Lissa on her shoulder, a friendly gesture, and she had to clench every muscle in her body to keep from flinching from his touch. "I know that there's been some suspicious activity within the military lately," the Führer continued, not a trace of threat this time, "and, I believe it's necessary for something to be done about it."
He turned and picked up some of the notes left on the nearby table, and Alex reached out as if to stop him, stammering, "Oh, that's just…uh…"
But the Führer was already flipping through the papers. "A list of the research team assigned to study the Philosopher's Stone," he acknowledged. "Every person listed in this document has been reported missing. They all vanished several days before the Fifth Laboratory collapsed."
Lissa looked at Ed sharply. Vanished? That was a bombshell for sure. They hadn't heard anything about these disappearances.
"It seems the enemy is always one step ahead of us," Bradley observed. "Even with my vast network of informants, I have no way to determine how far our ranks have been infiltrated. The most we know about them, is that they know a lot about us."
Hughes' eyes narrowed. "In that case…this is proving much more dangerous than we imagined."
Bradley placed the papers back down on the table and looked at them all in turn. "Major Armstrong… Lieutenant Colonel Hughes… Elric Brothers… Cadet Caito… You've all proven yourselves to be people of a trustworthy character. From this point forward, I'm giving you the direct order to forget this matter and all that it concerns."
To forget about it? All of it? Lissa didn't know that she and the boys could do that.
"At this time, suspicion is our strongest line of offense, and our only form of defense is discretion. Do not trust anyone," Bradley warned, his tone firm and intense. "Keep this to yourselves at all costs. However…" He broke into a smile, a sort of fierce, sharp smile that set Lissa's teeth on edge. "When I deem the time is right to confront the enemy, I expect you to be prepared to join me in the effort."
Both Hughes and Alex saluted and agreed immediately. "Sir!"
Lissa kept her hand firmly at her side. She wasn't going to salute him, not after he'd delivered a speech like that one—and thankfully, Ed seemed to be thinking the same thing. He didn't so much as budge beside her.
A voice filtered through the door. "Where is he? Has Führer Bradley been through here?"
The Führer peered at the door a bit anxiously, almost. "Gotta go," he announced. "Damn bodyguard thinks he's my shadow." He strode across the room—and then, to the astonishment of everyone inside, he swung the windows open and set his foot against the sill. "Y'see, I snuck away to get a few minutes of privacy," he explained. Bradley hoisted himself right out the bottom-floor window with a cheerful, "Well, farewell for now!"
They stumbled to the window to watch him walk away, in total awe seeing him just…leave that way.
"Did that really just happen?" Lissa asked Ed lowly, meeting his wide-eyed gaze.
"I have no idea," he mumbled.
The door popped open again, and Winry stepped through, smiling brightly. "Hey, guys!" She skidded to a halt when she noticed their state, though. "What the… What's going on? Did I miss something?"
"Not really," Ed told her weakly. "Just a tornado passing by."
She gave him a bemused look. "Well…I don't think there's anything I can do about that… But I did buy the train tickets you asked me to get."
Ed grinned at her. "Thanks. Just in time."
Alex looked down at him with a faintly disapproving air to him. "You certainly are a man on the move, aren't you? Your wounds haven't even healed completely, nor have Lissa's. Is it quite safe to be leaving so soon?"
"We're getting stir crazy sitting here," Lissa explained, shrugging. "It's not like we'll heal any faster sitting around in the hospital."
"Besides, I'm starting to get real sick of the smell of antiseptics," Ed tacked on.
Hughes crossed to join them curiously. "And where are you guys heading off to this time?" He looked over Winry's shoulder as she displayed the three train tickets for him. "What's in Dublith?"
"Well…" Ed put on a determined face and reached over, patting Al on the arm a few times. "With the way things have gone lately, Al and I decided we should go back and visit our old teacher. Lissa hasn't gotten to train with her, either. Hopefully it'll help us start winning some fights."
Beside him, Alphonse began to tremble. "I think I'm too scared, brother," he whispered. Then, in almost a wail, "There's no way that she's not gonna kill us!"
Ed gripped his hands and met his terrified expression with one of his own. "Look, don't you chicken out on me now! I'm scared too, okay?!"
Winry rolled her eyes. "What exactly does this person teach, anyway?" she muttered.
"It appears you have a rather lengthy journey ahead of you," Alex pointed out, unbothered by the boys' sheer terror. He was accustomed to their…uniqueness, by now.
"Yeah, it's not exactly next door," Lissa agreed.
Winry gave her a curious look. "How far is Dublith? I'm not familiar with the city."
"Well, let's see…" Al shuffled the papers on the table around until he found the map of Amestris they'd been referencing earlier. Then he tapped the little white circle that indicated Dublith, quite a few stops south of Central. "There it is. All the way down here."
Seeing it on the map like that, Lissa was reminded of just how far out of the way she herself had been born. Trains didn't even run to Rayerk—you had to take a horse and cart just to reach it.
Suddenly, Winry let out a shriek, her jaw dropping.
"Er…are you okay?" Lissa asked her, thoroughly confused.
Ed gave her a baffled look. "Wha—what is it?"
"That! Right there!" Winry pointed with a faintly trembling hand at a stop on the railroad. "Right before Dublith! It's the holy land of automail engineering—it's Rush Valley!"
The name meant…nothing to Lissa, nothing at all. But she could tell Winry was really excited about the place, at least, as she began begging Ed to take her along, waving her arms and giving him the most desperate puppy-dog eyes ever. It was amazing, watching her just lose her mind that way. Lissa had never seen her get like this about anything.
Ed scoffed at her. "Yeah, whatever. I don't have to take you anywhere."
Winry snapped to frustration in a heartbeat, looming over him angrily. "Well somebody has to pay for my travel fare!"
"And why does that have to be me?!"
Lissa tapped Ed's shoulder to cut him off before he went on a real tirade. "You're being an ass," she told him, smirking. "Of course we'll take you down with us, Winry. I mean, you did just come all the way here from Resembool just to fix Ed's arm."
Ed gaped at her. "Traitor!"
"You say that a lot," Lissa observed wryly.
Al crossed to them and nodded his agreement. "C'mon, brother, what's the big deal? It's on our way, besides."
He grumbled to himself. "Ugh. Fine. Only if you and Liss want to."
Winry bounded out of the room, explaining she needed to call Pinako and tell her what was going on, giggling the whole way.
"Hmph. You guys always gang up on me," Ed pouted.
Al patted his head sympathetically. "Cheer up, brother. It won't be so bad, really. Why are you so against it, anyway?"
"You don't get it, do you? We're going to Rush. Valley. It's the damn automail center of Amestris." Ed waved his automail arm and leg around emphatically, hopping around on his flesh leg to keep balance. "I'm like, half automail! They're gonna rip me apart and Winry's going to let them do it! I'm dead as soon as we get off the train!"
Lissa giggled and caught his arm, tugging him down so he'd stop jumping around like that. "Aw, like we'd let them do that to you. Don't worry, you can hide behind me, okay?"
Hughes grinned at them both. "Cute. So you didn't seduce your mechanic—you seduced your trainee. That's pretty pervy of you, Edward. I didn't think you had it in you. I'm proud." He clapped Ed on the back warmly, oblivious to the way both Ed and Lissa turned varying shades of red in response.
"I didn't seduce anybody!" Ed spluttered, staring at him in shock.
Lissa groaned and pressed her face into her hands, completely embarrassed. "Hughes…why are you like this?" she mumbled through her palms.
