Chapter 7

Adam stood in front of the Elric house. He was positive that Winry Rockbell was alive, and he knew Edward and Alphonse should have the chance to come with him when he went to Stone Tree.

When he knocked, it was Al who answered.

"Hello," he said politely, though his eyes were wary. "Is there something else?"

Adam nodded. "I'd like to talk to your brother, too."

"Are you sure? I told you that Brother…"

"I'm sure."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Al opened the door and invited him inside.

"Ed!" Al called up the stairs, "Someone wants to see you!"

Ed came down the stairs slowly, a book tucked under one arm. Adam caught a glimpse of the title; Advanced Alchemical Teachings.

Ed didn't look pleased to be interrupted, and looked even less pleased when he spotted Adam. "What the hell is it this time?"

"Brother!" Al said crossly, "Be nice."

Adam wondered how he should approach such a touchy subject. Then decided to just come right out and just say it.

"Winry didn't die in the Crestfall fire," Adam stated.

Both jerked as though physically struck. Al went pale, and Ed looked like he was about to hit Adam.

"Two days after the Crestfall fire," Adam hastened to add, sensing he had precious little time to make his case before Ed threw him out, "Two women were admitted to the Stone Tree hospital, both being treated for burns. This is Pita Waterford."

Adam handed them the photo he found in the hospital records. Ed and Al stared.

"This is Paninya," Al gasped. "She survived?"

"With her companion, her supposed cousin, Renee Waterford."

This time, Ed held the picture so tightly Adam feared he would permanently crumple it.

"It-it looks like…" Ed took a deep, steadying breath, his eyes looking suspiciously moist. "Al, she…"

But he never finished his sentence. Both Elric brothers seemed incapable of speech, staring at the photo as though they had never seen one before.

Adam smiled. "Would you like to join me for a trip to Stone Tree?"

oooooooo

Upon reaching Stone Tree, the Waterford residence was pointed out by a helpful man in the town, who probably assumed they were new automail customers. It was a short walk, but Adam could sense the tension in Ed and Al as they drew nearer.

They were approaching a large, two-storey house surrounded by a low wooden fence. A sign outside had the words 'Waterford Automail' printed in neat black letters. A golden-furred dog was lying on the verandah like a lazy puddle of sunlight, and it raised it's head and barked an alarm when it saw them.

A chicken coop was partially hidden by the house, but the quiet clucks of happy poultry drifted through the air. There were brightly-coloured flowers framing the fence, and a vegetable garden to one side. A woman was kneeling there, picking tomatoes and placing them in the basket beside her. At the dog's barks, she looked up and rose to greet them.

Beside him, Adam felt both Elric brothers draw a sharp breath.

The woman was dark, with brown skin and thick black hair. She wore conservative clothes, a light top and shorts, and there was a carelessness in the way she swung the tomato basket that lent her an air of mischief. Below the cuff of her pants, Adam could see that both legs were made of automail, the metal glinting brightly in the sun.

She approached with an easy grin on her face. "Hey there! I'm Pita. If you're customers you may have to wait, Renee's working right now-"

"Paninya?" Al asked, his voice carrying his astonishment.

The woman blinked, clearly shaken.

"I-I said…" She trailed off, staring at Ed. Her eyes lit with recognition.

"Ed?" she gasped, "Edward Elric?"

Ed nodded, seemingly as stunned as Al. "Yeah, guess you wouldn't know Al out of the armour, would you?"

"Al?" Paninya choked, turning back to the man who'd first addressed her.

Al nodded, grinning at her confusion.

"What! B-but how? We…they-" Paninya's stuttering was cut short by a voice from inside the house.

"Can you watch the shop for a while? I need to grab some screws, Mr. McGregor needs a new set…"

Then she appeared. Renee Waterford. Blue Eyes. Winry Rockbell. Adam didn't doubt this was the girl in the photo. Not even through the many differences.

Her hair was shorter – the end of the ponytail brushed the middle of her back instead of reaching past her waist. Her face had changed, the remains of baby fat had vanished, the lines of her features hardened and sharpened by what she had endured. Her right shoulder, neck and side bore the scars of old burns, and her right leg was made of automail.

But the eyes told the story. The same bright sapphire blue, only deeper. These eyes understood the nature of pain, these eyes were wiser and far older than those caught in that photograph all those years ago. But they were still the same…fathomless and piercing.

And if there was even a hint of doubt in Adam's mind, it was banished the moment he looked at the Elric brothers. Their eyes were wide, and their fists were clenched so tightly the knuckles bleached. Ed appeared to be shaking.

The woman noticed them, smiled welcomingly, started towards them…and stopped.

She stared at Ed, her mouth open, her eyes wide and startled. Her gaze drifted to Al, then back to Ed, then to Al, then Ed again.

There was a charged silence.

Then slowly, carefully, as though afraid of breaking the spell, Ed stepped towards the woman frozen in front of them.

"Winry?" he breathed, his voice breaking like thin glass.

"E-Ed?" Her distinctive blue eyes sparkled with tears. "Al?"

Ed reached towards her, gently cupping her face in his hands, still staring at her with the expression of a man who believed he was about to wake up. Winry's eyes flickered to his right hand, her own rising to fold over it.

"You did it," she choked out. "You really did it."

She sniffed loudly, then admitted, "I thought…the papers said you and Al were dead."

With a soft sob, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. Ed's arms twined around her, holding her tightly to him.

"Winry," he murmured, "We thought you were dead…went to Crestfall, and they said…we thought…"

Abandoning any attempt at speech, Ed rested his cheek against the crown of Winry's head and let his tears fall into her hair.

Al stood by, blinking back the moisture in his own eyes and looking slightly uncomfortable, until Winry disentangled one arm from Ed and yanked him into the hug by his jacket.

Adam felt his own eyes grow suspiciously wet at the heartfelt reunion. Paninya was the same, smiling and sniffling at the same time.

"Oh God, Al…" Winry sighed. "You're back to normal…and Ed, no more automail for you, huh?"

"No more for me," Ed agreed. "But Winry, your leg…"

"Your shoulder…" Al traced the scars with his fingers. "What happened?"

Winry gave a watery smile. "I'll tell you later. But don't stand out here, come inside, come on!"

oooooooo

At Winry and Paninya's table, the whole story came out. Two days before the Crestfall fire, Winry had her right leg broken for trying to escape. It was left to heal without treatment, so Winry had tried to splint it with a wooden table leg and strips of cloth torn from her blanket. When the fire broke out, Winry had been lying on the floor of her cell in agony, attempting to reset her improvised splint.

The door to her cell barred, Winry had been unable to get out as the flames drew ever closer. When the wooden door went up, Winry realised she could either try for freedom, or die on her knees.

Winry ran at the flaming door, battering it down and escaping into the corridor. But her shoulder, neck and side were badly burned. And her broken leg dragged through the flames, all but incinerating it.

Winry had managed to stagger down the corridor, drawing back the bolts on every door she could find, until she came to Paninya's cell. And both girls had conspired to make one last bid for freedom. While everyone ran towards the river and safety and the guards, Winry and Paninya ran towards the forest.

Reaching Stone Tree took two days. There was hardly anything left of Winry's leg, and her horrific burns swiftly became infected. Paninya had to half-carry her all the way, following a deer track over the mountains, sleeping under blankets of pine needles because they were too scared of discovery to light a fire.

They knew they couldn't give their real names – they were registered as prisoners of the State, and if even a whisper of their existence reached official ears they would be dragged back to a detention centre. If they were to have any hope of surviving, the entire world had to believe that Winry Rockbell and Paninya Yula had died in the fire at Cresthill.

So, moving painfully over the seemingly-indomitable mountains, they came up with their stories. Winry was now Renee Waterford, a mechanic with a talent for automail surgery. Paninya was her cousin (people would never have believed they were sisters), Pita Waterford, a woman with inside knowledge of automail, whose accident with a plough had inspired her cousin to work with the artificial limbs.

Renee's parent had died when she was a child, and she then came to live with Pita's family. They were a very isolated home, living high in the mountains, occasionally appearing in Rush Valley for the sake of Pita's automail and Renee's mechanical education. The story would cover most of their bases, and they even made up names for their other family members.

Explaining their journey to Stone Tree and Winry's injuries would prove more difficult. They decided to say that their house had burned down, killing all the other members of their family. Pita had been outside and so remained relatively unharmed, but Renee had been trapped inside when a beam fell on her leg, breaking it. She had been badly burned by the fire before her cousin got her out.

As to why they chose to come to Stone Tree – they said it was closer to their home than Rush Valley, and considering the severity of Renee's injuries, Pita had to get her to the closest hospital available.

At the hospital, the doctors told Winry – or as they knew her, Renee – that her leg was too badly damaged to be saved. The shattered bone, the hideous burns and the resulting gangrene had conspired to all but obliterate the limb. There was no choice but amputation.

Winry told the doctors to go ahead and cut it off, she'd just make herself an automail leg. It took her several days to get over the amputation and her injuries, and it was nearly a week before Winry began sitting up and taking interest in the world again.

Paninya laughed when she told the group that as soon as she was herself again, Winry had begun planning the automail attachment. Adam and Al had laughed, and Ed had smiled as though at some fond memory.

But then Winry and Paninya had read about the riots. With Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric listed in black and white among the deceased. And when they found out a few weeks later that all of Risembool had been massacred…Winry and Paninya hadn't seen any point in revealing their true identities.

They had donned the mantle of Renee and Pita Waterford, even buying their own house and setting up their own business. Winry's automail had put Stone Tree on the map, and transformed a quiet little village into a bustling town.

"I can't believe you guys were only a train ride away all this time," Winry sniffled, "For so long, we thought…"

"Yeah," Ed muttered, his arm curling around her shoulders. "I know, believe me, I know."

Adam sipped his coffee and hid a satisfied smile.