Chapter Five

Ed stomped through the snow, his temper foul. Al had stopped trying to talk to him. He didn't know if something had happened in the night between Ed and Winry or maybe Ed just had a bad night but he was trying even Al's vast patience. There were rare times that Al just wanted to sit on his brother until the crabbiness passed. This was one of them.

"Ed, there." Al pointed across the river they had been follow, trying to find Zak's building. He was sure he had found something important.

"Boot prints?" Ed sounded less impressed. "We've seen more than enough of those."

"Not out this far, we haven't," Al replied, wishing he had teeth to grind. It would probably feel good right about now.

"Probably just a lucky hunter who finally managed to escape the skiers," Ed huffed, waving his brother off impatiently.

"Well, the tracks parallel the river so we can follow them both for a little while," Al said, thinking about burying Ed in the snow. Ed just shrugged.

They trudged on for a little while following the tracks before Ed stopped short. His eyes widened. "What the hell!"

"This is bad," Al said, his gripes about Ed flying from his mind.

On a stone, a few yards away were the words, 'Welcome, Elric Brothers,' painted brightly. Al started running after his brother who had taken off toward the rock. The ground shifted under Al and the snow crumbled under his weight. Al dropped into the covered crevasse, his helmet nearly coming all the way off as he banged his way to the bottom. Al wasn't dazed per se but he was disoriented. "Brother?" he queried, trying to tell top from bottom.

"Al! Al! Are you all right?"

Al glanced up and saw Ed backlit by the bright sunlight. "I'm okay. I don't think anything came off or broke in the fall but I think my leg's stuck."

"I'll get you out." Ed clapped his hands but before his brother could do anything Al saw a log swinging toward Ed's head.

"Brother!"

Ed didn't have time to react. Al flinched, hearing the sickening concussion. Ed collapsed without a whimper. A shadow fell across the opening of the crevasse then was gone.

"Brother!" Al screamed again, scrabbling for his chalk inside his pouch. He made a sloppy array on the rock. This was too slow. No wonder State Alchemists carried their prime arrays. He needed to be able to do this like his brother could. Was that a motor he heard over the roar of the rock he was transmuting into a staircase? Rock shifted away from his trapped foot. Al found the climb out harder than he expected. When he had nearly lost his helmet, his hollow body had filled with snow. He couldn't open his chest plate in the narrow ravine he was caught in and he was afraid to transmute the snow to a liquid form. He and Ed were both leery of the blood seal getting wet or scratched. Really he ought to transmute some metal around it to shield it better.

When Al finally reached the top, he evacuated his chest then transmuted what had fallen into his limbs into water. He hated this. Things like this only served to remind him he was no longer human, not really. He was little more than an animated doll his brother had created. Al knew Ed would be angry for him even thinking it but sometimes he couldn't help it.

He glanced around. Blood, in a halo, spattered the snow. Al didn't have a heart to clench but he could have sworn he felt something very much like that. It was beyond bad. Ed was hurt and whoever had set the trap obviously knew that they were alchemists if they knew their real names. Dr. Endymion had been right to fear the worse in this place.

Al looked around for footprints other than his and Ed's and the ones he found ended with deep, ski-like ruts. The motor he had heard, it just had to be one of those strange machines, like motorized sleds, that Winry had seen in town and fallen in love with. Halia had one. They could move pretty fast over snow. Al might not be able to keep up but he could track them. He just hoped the trail wouldn't intersect with cross-country skiers or he might never find Ed.

X X X

Winry trudged down the snowy sidewalk towards Halia's clinic. The streets were nearly empty this early in the morning. She hated not being able to go with the brothers. They might need her, not that she knew what she could do that two alchemists couldn't. She simply disliked cooling her heels and as much as she enjoyed helping Halia, what little useful gossip she heard at the doctor's office wasn't worth the effort. Winry wasn't sure why she had bullied her way into coming on this trip. She thought it was because she wanted to spend time with the brothers, that she could help them. What a joke. She was just a distraction. She proved that last night.

Going to Halia's early was just a dodge to keep from thinking about the night before. Winry didn't want to be reminded how good it felt kissing Ed. Even better than the kissing was the feel of his erection pressing against her and the slick, wet feeling between her own legs. She had wanted to know what he felt like, what he looked like in that state. Was that moving too fast? Probably, since they had never actually dated, but they had known each other all their lives. Surely that shaved time off how fast they could go. She wanted to see those beautiful metal parts of him melding with the warm flesh of his body, see him in a way that wasn't clinical for a change.

Wondering if Al had heard them, Winry's cheeks flushed guiltily. She loved both of the Elric brothers but she wasn't in love with Al. Even if he had his body back, it wouldn't make a difference. It wasn't that Al wouldn't make an excellent boyfriend; he was sweet, warm and caring. But Winry liked the thorny challenge presented by Ed. "Easy," she told herself in a plume of air, "would get boring."

No one was around when she got to the doctor's office, not that it was a surprise, given the early hour. The front door was open so Winry went in calling, "Halia!" merrily.

In response, something crashed. A dreadful feeling washing over her, Winry charged into the office. She saw legs disappearing out the window. Halia lay on the floor, bleeding. The doctor lay very still and for a moment, Winry thought Halia might be dead. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Halia's chest move.

Winry dashed into a treatment room and grabbed gauze and a medical kit. She knelt beside Halia and gingerly probed the gash on the back of the doctor's head. Head wounds were always bloody affairs, sometimes misleadingly so. The tissue around the wound felt soft with the first rush of swelling but the bone underneath seemed firm and ungiving. Winry didn't think Halia's skull was broken. Hearing the front door opening, Winry's heart thumped. Maybe whoever had done this was coming back to finish Halia off. No, that was silly. He would have just finished them both first and not run off only to come back.

"Morning, Halia!"

Winry let her pent up breath out. "Clare! Back here, hurry. Halia's been hurt!" she called to Halia's nurse.

The older woman raced in with young Tyler following her. The boy bore a fresh scrape on his forehead,. The woman's papery skin paled to a pasty hue as her mouth flopped open. Tyler went white under his freckles, his body trembling. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I scared off whoever it was," Winry said, thinking she did in fact know what happened. Whoever had taken Zak and killed the others had done this to Halia. They must be afraid the doctor knew too much.

"Is she?" Clare's voice trailed off, kneeling next to Halia. Tyler hung back, burying his face against the wall.

"No, and I don't think the wound is too serious. I interrupted whoever it was before he could finish the job." Winry's voice shook just a bit as it finally sank in how lucky she had gotten. The intruder must not have known her voice or she could have been killed too as part of it all. Surely if Halia was a target then so were she and the boys.

"This is because of the missing people," Clare said and Tyler whimpered softly.

"I'm afraid so, and I have to find my cousins. They could be in danger if someone thinks they're involved." Winry got to her feet, noticing Tyler's eyes drawn to her bloody hands. "Can you take care of Halia?"

"I can. And Winry, if someone thinks your cousins are involved, then they'll think you are, too," Clare warned, worry in her blue eyes.

"I know." Winry sobered, looking at the open window. "They're in the forest. I have to get out there but I don't know where exactly. I only got a quick look at map."

"I can take you," Tyler piped up, steeling his jaw.

"It's too dangerous," Winry said, shocked that the boy would even think to offer. It was dangerous out there and she knew he was very aware of that. "I couldn't risk you."

"Zak is my friend, Halia, too," the boy protested. "I want to help. We can take Halia's snow sled."

Clare looked Winry in the eye, worry reflecting in her face. "You'll never find your way on your own, Winry. I don't like it but you need a guide. Tyler knows these woods very well. We might not have time to haunt down another guide. Go on. I'll care for Halia. Tyler, you don't take any risks. You know how to hide. Winry, take Halia's rifle."

Winry followed Clare's pointing finger to the rifle. Washing Halia's blood off, Winry picked up the gun. It felt strange in Winry's hand. She had handled them before, learning to implant weapons into her automail. She did find it offensive but could understand the soldiers' desires to return to duty in an 'improved' manner. Maybe it was how her parents died that made guns repugnant. Abhorrent or not, Winry slung the gun over her shoulder and followed Tyler to the snow sled. She got on the thing, making sure her coat was completely buttoned.

"Do you know how to drive this?" Tyler asked, climbing on behind her.

"No, but I'm good with machines," Winry replied, studying the vehicle. The boy didn't look reassured. She pressed what she hoped was the starter button. The thing roared to life and, with starts and stops, Winry got the machine moving. Soon, she was gliding along the forest trails at a heart-fluttering pace. She had never been on anything so fast. What if she turned it over as she dodged branches, rocks and frozen creeks? She and Tyler would both die.

She didn't know she could be so cold. It felt like the flesh was burning off her face from the icy wind.

Tyler tapped her shoulder at intervals to point out the way. Finally, Tyler rapped on her shoulders and waved his hands. Winry stopped. "Look!"

Winry brushed a hand over her frosted eyelashes and glanced up. She had been concentrating so hard on the trail and not killing them by hitting something that she missed seeing the graffiti on the rock. Her heart sank. Someone knew Ed and Al's identity.

"Winry," Tyler said, hesitantly pointing to something red marring the pristine snow.

She swung off the sled and went to investigate. Winry had seen enough of the sanguine substance to recognize blood when she saw it. Her legs quivered as the strength drained from them. "Oh, Ed."

"Tracks," Tyler said, pointing them out. "Something big and heavy."

"Al. We need to follow them." Winry ran on shaky legs back to the sled. Tyler wheeled about and followed her.

So she could see the tracks better, Winry drove so slowly that she almost bogged the machine down. Al seemed to be following other sled marks. It didn't take long to see the sun glinting off Al's armor. "Al!" Winry screamed then killed the engine so she could be heard. "Al!"

He spun around, tearing up huge gouts of snow. "Winry! What are you doing here? It's dangerous."

"I know. I came to warn you and Ed." She vaulted off the sled. "Someone nearly killed Halia."

"And someone took Ed," Al said plaintively. If he could tremble, Winry knew he would. Al and Ed were inseparable and Al must have seen his brother get hurt. He had to be frantic.

"I saw the blood. I was afraid…" Winry paused, a tremor racing through her. "We have to find him."

"I think I know where they took him," Tyler piped up from where he sat on the sled.

Winry glanced over her shoulder at the child. "What?"

"That's the way to Zak's building, the one he was so excited about finding," Tyler replied, pointing to the tracks in the snow. "That's where the tracks seem to be heading."

"I guess that building really has something to do with everything that's going on," Winry said, relieved to have a target. That gave her hope. Maybe Zak and Ed were both there and she could help them. "We need to get there quickly before they do something worse to Ed. Al, get on. This thing is so fast."

"I'm too big, Winry. I won't fit and I'm heavy. It might not go with me on it. You'll have to go on ahead." Al's shoulders seemed to slump. "I can run fairly fast and I don't tire."

"Tyler, maybe you should go with Al. I don't want to risk you getting hurt. He can protect you and I'm not sure if I can," she said quietly, her nerves catching up to her.

Tyler shook his head. "I'm not wearing snowshoes. I'm too short to go through these drifts without them. I'll barely be able to walk. I'll stay with you and hide when we get there. Besides, I know the way if you lose the tracks," he pointed out, his body trembling, giving lie to his brave front.

Winry scowled then nodded. "Al, when I get there, I'll go inside to try and find Ed."

"Winry, it's too dangerous. Wait for me," Al protested, shaking his hands.

"Ed may not have time to wait and they won't be expecting me. This time the element of surprise is mine. And...I have a gun." Winry tried to smile encouragingly, not mentioning she wasn't a good shot, or maybe she was. She could fling a mean wrench, after all.

Al's leather and metal hand closed over her shoulder. "You be very careful."

Winry wrapped her fingers over his. "You, too."

Al's fingers flexed. "I can't let you do this Winry. It's way too dangerous."

Winry jerked free of his hand. "Please, Al, don't argue. It's the best way to do this. I'll be careful."

She could imagine Al's human face over that horrible helmet, saw the fire in brown eyes, the knit of a pale brow from concern and impotent frustrations. When he started to protest again, reaching back out for her, Winry gunned the sled and took off. She felt terrible in doing that to Al. He meant well but Ed might not have time to waste while she convinced him this was for the best.

Tyler went back to giving her hand signals. Her belly twisted when the building came into view. She knew Al wasn't far behind but it was enough should she get into trouble. Winry hoped her fear didn't show as she parked behind a stand of trees. She swung off the sled. "You should be pretty well hidden here, Tyler. This is the starter. If someone comes, try to drive out of here. Don't worry about me."

"Okay," the boy said, shakily.

Winry wondered if he'd drive off in a panic as soon as he was out of sight. She really wouldn't blame him. He'd been plenty brave just leading her here. She slung the rifle over her shoulder. It felt foreign and heavy. She hated guns but she'd rather have it than not.

Making her way towards the building, Winry steeled herself for what she'd find inside. She couldn't let herself think that Ed wouldn't be held captive here. The other sled trail did lead here. She couldn't think that he might already be dead. She would be in time. Ed wasn't beyond her reach. It was up to her to save him.