How to Get What You Work For

by PurpleTurtle21

After a friend attempts to perform alchemy from one of her favorite anime shows, Amelia finds herself on military property and about to go to prison for trespassing, until the Fuehrer offers her a chance: She gets a one-year trial period learning under a certified alchemist and if she passes, she gets a get-out-of-jail-free card. Now if she could only find someone to teach her…

20. A Long Way Home

The trip back to the train station was longer than Amelia first thought, and the four of them ended up making camp once they were out of the desert and spending a night out in the wilderness. Most of it was spent talking over the details of Amelia making the change from Armstrong to Edward, what she should expect, what was expected of her, and more importantly what she would be allowed to take with her from the Armstrong estate. Most of her personal belongings were in her backpack back at the mansion, which the Major planned to send over to the hotel where Alphonse and Edward were currently staying so she could hang onto them, as well as the promise of a little bit more of a wardrobe than what she came with, though she would likely have to get some of them tailored since "Catherine's clothes are the only ones that I would imagine fitting you."

They discussed a send-off for her, Armstrong style, and Amelia quickly declined. She didn't need a grand party or anything, she just needed to focus on what she had with Edward, and it wasn't like she wouldn't ever see them again. However, after a little more insisting that his sisters would be left without a goodbye, she promised to pen a letter addressing all three of them and letting them know she would be moving on to a different teacher. With a little lantern light, she took the time to write out something for them from the Major's personal notebook pages, a little letter that told the three sisters that she enjoyed her time with them, and where they could find her, though she would prefer to be left to her studies since she had a great deal riding on them and asked them to respect that.

The night went on and Breda and Armstrong took turns keeping watch for anything in the darkness that might not be welcome at their camp while Amelia and Edward slept. As she slipped into a comfortable position on the grass, she felt her body growing more relaxed and she drifted off into a dream.

Amelia stood in a white void, looking to her right she saw a terrified Kate standing next to her. The girls looked at each other, and Kate said something… but it was muffled, as if she was speaking underwater or through a fuzzy radio signal. She could hear her voice but couldn't understand what she said. Another voice came, again in that same muffled state, but it was something that sent a chill down her spine as she looked and saw a silhouetted figure in the white void.

The silhouette looked at both of them, and Kate spoke to it, and it spoke back. It was so strange, seeing nothing but a person there with only a mouth - if it could even be called that. She could see teeth and a tongue, but all of it was white, none of it seemed… real or tangible. She was sure if she reached out to touch them, her hand would pass right through their body, whatever it was. As Kate stepped forward, the faceless silhouette seemed to… smile.

Suddenly, red lightning as if from a transmutation circle began to shoot up from underneath Kate's feet. "Katie, what's happening?!" Amelia could hear her own terrified voice clear as day, but she still couldn't hear Katie's as she watched her body disappear, getting torn apart as if she were made of paper, strip by strip being pulled away and she watched as it flew over to the silhouette, who started to become covered in it. Amelia was frozen where she stood, unmoving as she watched it all happen, Katie disappearing before her eyes and watching as her stripped pieces came to the figure before her until she was gone. She looked at this new Katie, a neutral expression on her face, which quickly turned into that discomforting grin as she gestured behind her, a massive grey gate appearing from nowhere… or had it been there all along?

The doors opened, and a mass of black tentacles outstretched towards her, and Amelia turned around to run away. She could feel the tiny hands grabbing at her clothes, wrapping around her arms and legs until they went taut, and she screamed as she was pulled back, watching as the Other Katie observed all of it with a wide-toothed grin, being pulled back into the darkness behind the doors…

Amelia jumped awake in her sleep, finding herself a little short of breath. She let out a long sigh as she realized it was just a dream, but she had ones like that before… what did it mean? She wasn't even sure, but she pushed those thoughts aside as she rolled over. She looked and she could see Ed where he was sleeping, lying on his side with his flesh arm as a pillow. His back was to her, so she couldn't see his face, but seeing him there, just asleep and relaxed a few feet away helped to put her back at ease and she closed her eyes and let sleep come to her once more.

---

The next morning, they went out onto the main road and found a stable to sell the horses to as well as got a ride with one of the stable boys who was headed into town on a hooded cart, with enough room to take the four of them to the train station. In that cramped space that smelled of horse manure and haystacks, Amelia looked over at Edward and asked, "What do you think Alphonse has been doing since you've been out here?"

"Al?" He took a moment to think about it, "...Probably trying to find some answers about why I had to go out here to begin with. He'll ask the same questions I did, probably to Colonel Punk Bastard."

"Who?"

"Colonel Mustang."

"Oh." She didn't really know the story between him and the colonel, and why Edward seemed to hate him so much, but she supposed it was something she could find out later. "Do you think he found any answers while he was asking?" Edward shrugged.

"Considering how secretive the colonel was about this whole operation, I doubt he knows anything about what happened." He said, "I'll tell him when I get back." She nodded.

"And you're really okay with me just… sticking with you until we meet up with him?" She asked, wondering if he would be someone to put her in handcuffs, partly to get back at her, but also because she was still technically a criminal. But to her relief, Edward nodded.

"You'll have to get used to traveling a lot because Al and I travel pretty much everywhere." He said, "If it's not because of our duties to the military, then it's because of our own goals."

"Right, I think I got that." She said, nodding again and smiling, "And… thanks. I know I said that before, but I'm really glad that I at least know my new teacher a little bit already. How are you going to go about it, anyway?"

"I'm a pretty hands-on sort of guy, so I guess I'll do that with you, too." He said, "Lots of training, transmuting, and more than just memorizing stuff out of books. You'll need to get used to being a conduit for that tectonic energy, because it can take a lot out of you if you're not careful, especially for really big transmutations."

"Right, but what about if you taught me how to transmute without a circle?" She asked, smiling, "Then I would get into the state alchemist program for sure, right?"

Edward frowned, looking away from her awkwardly as he tried to figure out how to explain that it wasn't something he could exactly teach… he only knew how to do transmutations without a circle because he had attempted human transmutation, and he wasn't about to encourage Amelia to do the same thing and risk paying a toll. "Um… well, it's not that simple. It takes a long time to learn something like that." He said, turning back to her, "Look, I'll just help you with your transmutations. If you can make something big enough to impress them, they'll take you in." Amelia frowned as he denied teaching her how to transmute without a circle, but she resigned herself to his methods. He was right in that they didn't have very long, the exam was months away, but that was still a short time to bring herself anywhere near his level as an alchemist.

"Alright, fair enough." She sat back and looked out through the opening of the carriage, watching as the countryside moved along behind them. She looked towards the front where the Major and Lieutenant Breda were sitting and chatting with the man who owned it. She looked back at Edward, "Hey, you remember when we had to come and get you out of that thing in Dublith?"

Edward nodded, confused as to why she was asking.

"I talked to the Major about this a little, but he doesn't really like hearing about it," She moved over a little closer to him in the carriage so she could speak quieter and still have him hear, but that's not how Edward took it when she came up shoulder-to-shoulder with him in the already cramped space, his cheeks turning a little red and getting a bit flustered, "Don't you think it's kind of weird that the leader of your country went out of his way to wipe out that gang of people working for that homunculus?" Edward's eyes widened and his embarrassment at their closeness forgotten about for a moment, "I mean, I remember thinking about how weird it was, that he would take the time to lead that raid, and just completely kill everyone without any kind of hope of getting new information about them and whoever they're with in the military's higher-ups."

Edward frowned, not entirely liking what this was suggesting, "I doubt the Fuhrer has anything to do with these people." He whispered back to her.

"I'm just saying, it's a little weird that it happened, don't you think?" She continued, "What's supposed to be a humdrum inspection turns into a full-on raid against this small-time gang that the local guys could have easily taken care of; it's just suspicious to me." Edward couldn't deny that she had a point, "Plus, he always gives off these weirdly intimidating vibes."

"Most men in power will do that, you can't blame him for his position." Amelia gave him a side glare, and he turned away, "But I really don't like the idea that he's on their side… The Fuhrer's the leader of the country, I know he wants what's best for it."

"His idea of what's best and our idea isn't always the same idea." She said, "Trust me, I come from a pretty big country where we elect our leader, and there are always disagreements about what they want versus what the other side wants. What if he's on the same side as these guys that are trying to do something with the philosopher's stone?"

Edward's frown only grew at that thought, and he shook his head, "Honestly, this just sounds like a conspiracy theory. We don't have any proof of this, and I find it easier to believe that the Fuhrer just acted with recklessness when he decided to take out that hideout of people." He said, "Unless you somehow have proof?"

Amelia couldn't deny that and she moved back from him a little bit, crossing her arms and letting out a sigh, "It's just suspicious to me, and it seems a little… I don't know, it just doesn't seem right."

"But it's just a bunch of conspiracy theories that have no real basis." Edward said, crossing his arms as he looked at her, "I get that you're not part of this country, and you don't know how we run, but the Fuhrer's not some corrupt overlord, he's trying to keep this country safe even if he's doing it in ways people don't agree with."

"So, you admit there are people who don't like him?"

"Well… ever since he came into office, things definitely moved more towards the militaristic. We started having all these skirmishes along the south and the west, and then there was the Ishvalan Civil War. I think he sees us as surrounded by enemies on all sides, but he really is just trying to protect the people in this country as much as he can. Not everyone agrees with his use of military power."

"Do you agree with it?" Amelia had to admit she was curious about Edward's idea on politics.

He shrugged and said, "I don't think whether I agree or not matters, it's not like I can change it. On top of that, I'm a state alchemist, and they're known as the dogs of the military. We go where they tell us to go, fight who they tell us to fight, and when they tell us to roll over, we do."

Amelia grimaced a little at the idea, "Does that mean that's what I'm going to be once I get my certification?"

"Certified Alchemists aren't much more than human weapons for the state." Edward said, "It's not an ideal situation, but you can't ignore the benefits if you need easy money for alchemical research. The grants they give you for research on behalf of the state are huge, and you get access to materials that are exclusive to the military state. It's a huge benefit for alchemists who are still studying to better their skills in science."

"Yeah, but to be turned into a human weapon?" She couldn't find herself getting comfortable with the idea, "How often does that happen?"

"For me, it hasn't happened at all." Edward said, "But I wasn't certified during the civil war, and the skirmishes don't require any alchemists to step in since there aren't any advances being made on either side."

"So… if there's a war that happens while I'm certified as an alchemist…?"

"There's a good chance you'll be called in to fight on their behalf." Amelia couldn't help but feel a little dread at the idea now that she was more aware of it. She would have thought fighting might have been optional, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Edward could see her unease, "But, hey, it might not happen. It hasn't happened for me, so…" He shrugged, trying to make it seem less daunting than it was, though he was starting to get how it might seem a bit harsher to an outsider that had never considered it. He knew there were people that didn't think the certification was worth it just for that one fact, and they avoided it as if it were a plague. With Amelia, she didn't really get much of a choice like they did and he knew that. She could either become a state alchemist with limited freedoms or serve out her prison sentence before getting deported back to wherever it was she came from.

During this talk, their ride had gotten them all the way to the Resembool train station, which had a train pulling in and they could all hear the hiss of the steam engine as it slowed to a stop. As they all piled out, Breda thanked their driver for the ride, paying him a nice little sum of coin for their trouble and wished him goodbye as the older man continued on down the dirt road to wherever he was going. "I suppose we shall all return to the city together, then?" Armstrong asked.

"Actually, I was thinking of sticking around here for a little bit." Edward said, "I haven't been here since I got repairs, and that was a while ago… I'm probably due for dinner at Granny's."

"Oh." Amelia glanced over at Edward and the Major. Normally she would have just gone with him, but considering Edward had agreed to be her teacher, "Um… well, I guess I should…" She wasn't really sure if she should stay with him, or if she should go with the Major. She supposed if she went with Armstrong, she would end up under Alphonse's watch until Edward got back if the Major wasn't going to do it himself, though she still wanted to make sure she was getting in as much learning as possible so leaving her teacher behind wasn't really a good idea.

"Amelia, it's best if you stay with your teacher." Armstrong said, looking over to Edward, "She is your responsibility now that you've taken up the handle of her Alchemical Master, I imagine you'll make sure she's well taught."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Edward said, "She'll be a decent student." He looked over at Amelia, and he grinned, "And of course you'll have to show me some respect and call me Teacher, you know."

"Oh, like hell. I'm not calling you that, I'm older than you." She snapped back.

"Ah, now is that any respect to show to your alchemy master?" Edward teased, still grinning. Amelia only glared at him.

"You keep that shit up and, so help me, I'll smack you right into next week." She threatened, jabbing a finger in his face.

"Amelia." Armstrong's stern tone quieted her, "Edward is your superior now, and he's right in that you need to show him his due respect." She sighed defeatedly, which only made Edward's chest puff out with pride, "Provided that he shows that he's earned that respect for a teacher to have." And that deflated his pride a little bit before he nodded.

"Of course, Major…" He said, and he looked over at Amelia, "We'll start your official alchemy training in earnest tonight before we get some of Granny's dinner. Sound good?"

"Yeah." She was glad he seemed to want to take this seriously since it made her a little happier to know that she was putting her trust in him. She looked up at the Major, "So… I guess that means I'm with him." She said, and the Major nodded, and she paused, "Um… I'll probably see you when we get back to Central, right?" She wanted to avoid having to say goodbye to him.

"Perhaps, but it's not likely as we'll be transferring your things when I return." He said, "And I don't suspect you'll return in time to see everything…" She nodded, knowing this was the awkward part that she wasn't looking forward to. "So, this is where we part ways." She fully expected the Major to bring out the waterworks, the elegant pair of waterfalls that fell over his cheeks as he demanded a hug and squeezed the life out of her.

Instead, she was met with a single hand coming out for her to shake, "It has been an honor being your teacher, and I know that you will be a fantastic alchemist, Amelia Seymour." He said, and he smiled at her. Amelia looked up at him, waiting for the tears, but they didn't come. She reached out and took his hand, his massive one engulfing her own which seemed so small in comparison, with the gentlest of grips. She couldn't help but be reminded of the first time she shook his hand when he was introducing himself as her teacher. It seemed like an eternity ago, and she couldn't help but think that her initial impressions of him were so far off. When she saw that massive man, standing at 7 feet with at least a thousand pounds of pure muscle, she had been intimidated. Now she knew that while he was certainly not the terrifying man she had taken him to be that first day, he was rather sweet and caring, and a man of strict disciplines and principles.

She looked up at him and smiled, "Yeah, it was fun." She said, and she impulsively took a step forward to give him a brief hug. He put his hands on her back but didn't give her the intense squeezes that she had been expecting from him, and she was glad for his consideration for her at that moment. She stepped back and smiled up at him, "Make sure the girls know I'll miss them."

"I'll make sure they send their regards." The Major promised, and Amelia nodded. "And I hope you take comfort in knowing that you are left in trustworthy hands." He said, gesturing to Edward, who glanced over to Amelia but didn't seem to want to keep watching the exchange. "And Edward Elric," He looked up at the sound of his name, "I trust that you truly do intend to make sure Amelia becomes a fantastic alchemist." He said, saluting him.

Edward smirked and saluted back, "Sure, but she won't be any better than me."

Amelia smiled and looked back at Breda, "You still owe me a rematch, you know."

"Next time," Breda promised, saluting her, and she did that in return before Edward started making his way down the road, and Amelia waved goodbye to the Major and the Lieutenant before catching up to her new teacher, while the other two went inside the station to purchase their tickets.

"That went smoother than I thought it would." She commented to Edward as they walked down the road, "I was expecting the Major to do his usual emotional bit."

"So was I." Edward said with a small laugh, "With all the sparkling tears and the deep voice."

"Right?" Amelia laughed a little, "He's so dramatic. I doubt you're like that."

"I would hope not." Edward chuckled, "But for all of that, he's a good guy."

"Yeah, he is." Amelia glanced back, seeing the Major and the Lieutenant had disappeared into the train station to board. "I'll miss his house." She looked back at Edward, "So where will I be sleeping in your apartment?"

"Ah… I guess you'll have to take my bed." Edward muttered, "We have a two-bedroom suite, so it's not like it'll be too much of an adjustment."

"Well… why don't I take Al's bed?" Amelia asked, "I mean, it's not like he sleeps."

"I don't want to take Al's bed away from him," Edward said, sticking his hands in his pockets as they walked along the road, taking a path that Edward knew by heart and Amelia following alongside him. "Not really my place to."

"Oh." She didn't really think it would be that big of a deal, but she supposed Alphonse's situation was pretty complicated. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Sure," Edward replied.

There was a beat of silence between them that lasted for a little longer than Amelia was comfortable with. She wasn't really sure how to talk to him beyond maybe the occasional alchemy question or insult about his height. So, talking to him casually wasn't really something she was used to, but she managed to pull a standard icebreaker out of her head to ask him.

"So… the weather here is kind of nice. Warm." She commented.

"Yeah, it's always a little warm here in the south," Edward replied.

And that silence returned again. It irked Amelia that she couldn't really figure out how to talk to him. She could schmooze with the best of them, but she couldn't really understand a way to talk to this one guy who only had one interest that she knew of.

"So… do you have a hobby?" She asked hesitantly, clearly unsure if this was a path she wanted to go down as the words left her mouth.

Edward gave her an odd look before taking a moment to think, "Um… I guess alchemy." He said.

"Okay, but what about aside from alchemy?"

Edward shrugged, scratching his head as he tried to think of an answer, "Uh… I don't know. I read sometimes?"

"Oh, okay. What kind of stuff do you read?" It was something she could work with, and she latched onto it.

"Mostly alchemical theory books," Edward replied, and Amelia felt her shoulders slumping at the answer. Did his entire life revolve around alchemy?! Didn't he do anything just for fun?! "But sometimes I'll read mystery novels."

"Oh." She smiled, "That's pretty fun. I guess you're the kind of guy that likes to try and solve who it is before the end?"

"Yeah." Edward nodded.

"Do you have a favorite author?"

They continued to just chit chat back and forth about books for a while as they walked. It wasn't much of a thing to talk about, considering Edward only did it when he had absolutely nothing alchemy-related on his mind (which hadn't happened in the last 4 years), and Amelia had never read a mystery novel aside from some Nancy Drew back when she was 10, but it was able to lead them into a conversation and Amelia slowly started to grow a little more comfortable with him. Well, at least for that time being as they walked up to Pinako Rockbell's home.

As they came up a hill, they passed a graveyard and saw a lone man standing at one of the tombstones. Edward stopped as he looked at him, and Amelia stopped as she noticed that Edward was staring at him. "What is it?" She asked, looking over at the man. She could only see his back from here, he stood pretty tall, and she noticed that he had long blonde hair held back in a ponytail. As the man seemed to sense there were eyes on him, he turned around and Amelia could see the man had a beard and spectacles, with a solemn, somewhat melancholy expression on his face. She had to admit that the blonde hair he had on his head was pretty similar to Edward's own.

Edward recognized him right away, "Hohenheim…!" Amelia saw Edward's hands tightening into fists at his sides.

"Ed?" She saw him march into the graveyard, the man turning to watch as Edward approached him. Not knowing who this man was or what this was about, or what she should even do, Amelia just followed along behind Edward, waiting at a distance while he marched up to the older man. He didn't do anything at first, just glaring at him with clenched fists. The man looked back at him with that same melancholy expression.

"Hello, Edward." He decided to break the silence between the two of them. "You appear to have grown some." He only scowled deeper, looking like he was biting back his tongue and everything that he wanted to spill out and scream out was being kept inside at the moment. Maybe it was closer to there was so much he wanted to say that it was all blocking the entrance, and none of it could get out other than just an angry glare, "I spoke with Pinako." Edward's expression softened a little at that news, "You tried human transmutation." He went a little pale, and Amelia did too. Why would Pinako tell him that? Edward could get in huge trouble for doing something like that if it got out!

She thought Edward would have heard that and left him alone, but instead, he said, "What makes you think you can show up like this? There's nothing left for you here anymore!" He spat out, but he couldn't look him in the eye as he said it.

"I noticed." He replied dryly, "Tell me, Edward… What possessed you to burn down my home?"

Amelia grew a little confused hearing that. His home? The way she understood it, Edward and Alphonse burned down their home way back when Edward got his certification… who was this guy that claimed ownership? The landlord? She quickly realized her mistake as she looked at him again. No… this was Edward's father.

"After what happened, we vowed to never turn back." Edward explained, "We did it as a symbol of our resolve-"

"No, you didn't." He cut him off, "You were hiding the memory." Edward's eyes widened at his words, "You didn't want to be reminded of what you've done, and thought you could erase the memory by destroying the evidence." He said, stepping closer to Edward until he was towering over him, and Edward's expression turned fearful.

"You're wrong!" He had done so much for him and Alphonse based on what happened that night, he wouldn't hear of anything other than what he said.

"It's just like a child who hides the sheets after he wets the bed." Hohenheim continued, "You ran away, and you know it." Edward was shaken to his core to hear that, and his fists that he had clenched so tightly were shaking, at least his flesh hand was.

His mind was reeling, trying to figure out what to say to him so that he could walk away proud and satisfied, but it was hard to find anything when he was faced with this terrible truth. "I… You don't know a damn thing!" He shouted before he turned around, "You make me sick to my stomach…" He put his hand on Amelia's shoulder and pulled her along with him and they went back to the road, pulling her along so he wouldn't have an excuse to look back at that man.

"He's exactly like I was when I was his age." Hohenheim's words weren't reached to either of them as he watched his son walk off with a girl he had never seen before. He let them walk on before turning back to Trisha's grave, looking down at the tombstone and let out a long sigh, "I suppose it's just how he was destined to be… isn't it?" He smiled down at her, "He is my son after all, just like you said." The stone didn't reply back, but he could hear the hum of voices in his mind offering some comfort as he took some time to mourn her when he couldn't before.

Meanwhile, Amelia was pulling her arm out of Edward's grip, "Jesus, Ed! Take it easy." She said, rubbing her shoulder as she got it back.

"Sorry…" He shoved his hands back into his pockets and walked down the road with a sour expression on his face. He didn't say anything, and they had gone back to the silence they had before. "What is that you're always saying?"

"What do you mean?"

"Jeezus, what is that?"

"What do you mean 'what is that?' it's Jesus." Amelia said, "As in Jesus Christ."

"Yeah, I don't know what that is," Edward said, and Amelia frowned a little.

"Oh, come on. You know." She said, thinking he was joking, but the more she thought about it… when was the last time she had seen anything relating to that religion in this place? And when she looked at Edward, who was still waiting for an explanation, she had her answer, "You don't have Christianity here, do you?"

"I don't know what that is, so I'm going to say no," Edward replied.

"Jesus is… he's a guy from Christianity." Amelia said, "It's a popular religion where I come from. Jesus Christ is supposed to be the son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, sent to save us from our sins."

"Born of a virgin? It sounds like a bad excuse for an unexpected pregnancy." Edward said with a laugh, and Amelia chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess it does sound a little weird out of context." She admitted. They walked along in silence a little while longer, seeing Pinako's house coming into view at the top of the hill, but it would still be some time before they got there. Amelia couldn't help looking at Edward, who didn't exactly seem all that happy about their encounter, "So… that guy at the graveyard," She could immediately see Ed scowl at the mention of him, "That was your dad?"

"Yeah," He bit out.

"The one that walked out on you?" She looked back at the graveyard, and then back at him, remembering how the older man looked in comparison to his son, "You know… I kind of see the resemblance."

"What?! I'm nothing like that bastard!" Edward snapped, and Amelia held up her hands defensively.

"Whoa, chill! I just meant that you guys look kind of similar." She said, "I mean, you're both wearing ponytails, so it's kind of easy to see…" Edward's eyes widened, and after only a second he shoved his coat into her hands with the command of "Hold this." before he reached up to pull his ponytail out, and with practiced fingers quickly braided it and tied it back before taking back his coat. Amelia was a little surprised that was his reaction, but it was pretty clear that Edward wanted to distance himself from his father as much as possible. She knew better than to ask for any more details about him, she knew the gist about him leaving Edward and Alphonse behind with their mother, and she could sympathize with his anger about the situation.

So, while they walked, she changed the subject back to religions, asking about what religions they had in Amestris if any. Edward couldn't tell her much since he had no interest in it, but he informed her about the fraud that was Letoism, as well as a couple of other religions that he knew of, but each description ultimately ended with "They're all full of shit." Edward was a man of science, after all. He wouldn't believe what he couldn't see and reproduce himself. This continued until they got to the house, with Edward opening up the door, and Amelia jumping behind him as Den barked and came bounding over to greet him, surprised but happy to see him. She just huddled behind him until the dog had calmed down a bit, but she held up her things to block the dog from her as he tried to greet her, too.

"Edward! There you are!" Pinako came out of another room as she heard Den barking, tilting her head a little as she saw Amelia cowering behind him, "And… Amelia?"

"Yeah, we were in town," Edward said.

"You were supposed to be here yesterday! I've been getting calls from Alphonse for hours." Pinako scolded him as Edward just looked surprised, "Where have you been? He's been worried sick!"

"Sorry, things got… kind of crazy." Edward said sheepishly, "But I'm here, okay? Everything is fine." Pinako stared him down for a few moments, and Edward met her gaze since he wasn't about to be intimidated by a runty old woman half his size.

"Fine…" She eventually sighed and let it go, "Well, as long as you're here, you may as well stay for dinner."

"Yeah, figured we could." Pinako looked back behind Edward at Amelia.

"And what about you?" She asked.

"Me?"

"Where's your big muscle-head teacher?" Amelia glanced over at Edward and he shrugged.

"Well, um… some circumstances changed and… um, Edward's my alchemy teacher now." She said, unsure of how to approach this, and it definitely felt weird to say that Edward, this guy she didn't know that well and probably didn't like that much, was now her alchemy teacher.

"Really?" Pinako looked over at Edward for confirmation, and her eyebrows rose up high above her glasses, "Well… I can't say I was expecting that from you, Ed. I didn't think teaching would be something you'd do."

"Yeah, well…" Edward trailed off with a shrug, not seeming to have an answer for her. Pinako looked between the two teenagers, who both seemed pretty uncomfortable just standing there with their things in her doorway.

"I suppose that's that, then. We'll have another seat at the dinner table." Pinako said before she started to head into the kitchen, speaking over her shoulder as she walked, "Ed, you can go and make-up the extra beds for you and Amelia. I'll start working on dinner."

"Okay, Granny." Edward made his way upstairs and Amelia wasn't really sure where to go, but she easily noticed she was left alone with the dog. Den looked up at her, and when their eyes met his tail started wagging.

She let out an uneasy whimper and held up her bag again to put some kind of barrier between them as she started to walk away from him and into the kitchen. Of course, Den followed her, and she just tried to go slow and ignore him, knowing that dogs responded to any kind of attention she might give him. She went into the kitchen, seeing Pinako getting up on a step stool as she focused on her cooking.

"Um… Miss Pinako?" The older woman looked back at the sound of her name, "Could you… do something about the dog?" She asked.

"Oh, that's right. You're afraid of dogs, aren't you?" She patted her leg and Den rushed over to sit by the stepping stool, "He's alright, he won't bug you." She looked back over at the girl, seeing how she didn't try to leave now that Den was away from her. She stood in the kitchen, clutching her bag and looking around at the place, searching for something that wasn't there, "While I have you here, would you mind setting the table?" She pointed to a cabinet and Amelia followed her finger, "The plates are in there."

"Oh, sure." She reached up to get three plates, heading over to the table and putting them out.

"We'll need one more." Pinako said when she saw she had put out three, "Edward's father is going to be joining us for dinner as well."

"Uh… he is?" After their last meeting, she didn't think that was the best idea.

"Yes, well, he'll be staying here with us. It would be rude not to offer him a meal while he's here." Pinako said as she continued on cooking as if there was nothing wrong with inviting him to a meal where he would be eating alongside his son who he hadn't seen in however many years.

"He's staying here?"

"His house was burned down, where else would he go?" Pinako defended him, "Besides, I think it would be good for him and Edward to at least share one meal. I don't expect it to change anything or make it better, but at least they could learn to be civil together."

"There's not a hotel or anything he could stay at?" She asked, getting the fourth plate and putting it on the table as well, going to get the silverware to join them.

"The nearest inn is in the next town, no sense in letting him go all that way just for a bed after he comes back home," Pinako replied, still focusing on her pot as she stirred its contents, occasionally lifting up her tool and crushing something inside of it. "I'm not sure you should be worried about Hohenheim, he's a good man of even temper. I doubt he'll try to pick a fight with Edward."

"I'm not… I mean, Edward's temper isn't exactly controlled." She said, "And… we ran into him on the way here."

"You did?" Pinako looked up from her food.

"In the cemetery, Edward confronted him…" Amelia said, "It took me a second to realize who he was, but after a minute of them talking, and how mad Ed was…" She trailed off, but it was clear enough to Pinako who sighed at her description of things.

"Did he punch him?"

"Uh… no."

"Really? I thought he'd be eager to slug his father after all this time." Pinako went back to the food, "Maybe that's a sign that he's moving past that anger a little."

"I really doubt it." Amelia replied, "Edward was really pissed, and his dad kind of called him out on burning down the house… he said that Edward did it to hide the memory of their human transmutation." Pinako's expression changed to a scowl at that, but she still focused on her food, "He said it was his excuse for running away from his problems."

Pinako didn't reply to that for a while, just focusing on cooking while Amelia waited for her to say something at this news, but she was only met with silence and Pinako's hard expression as she stared down at the pot. Amelia couldn't fathom what she was thinking, but she figured there must have been some relationship between her and Hohenheim, though she couldn't remember what. Hadn't she said he was an old drinking buddy of hers? They must have had quite some time together, and she was sure that hearing about him fighting with his oldest son wasn't the best thing to hear. Then again, she was in the middle of that turmoil, she knew that relationship and that divide between them much better than Amelia ever could.

After what felt like a long while, but was only really about a minute of silence, she changed the subject, "So… what are you making?"

"Some chicken and potatoes." Pinako replied, "Do you want to help?"

"Sure." Amelia came over to the side and did as Pinako instructed to help her out with making dinner. She wasn't very good at it, any cuts she had were a little clumsy, but she came out of it without any burns or scars, which she took as a good sign. She helped her prepare it, and in the middle of it, she heard the front door opening and closing. Amelia peeked out of the kitchen to see Hohenheim was there, and Den came around the corner, barking eagerly at first until he saw who it was. Then he started growling, his tail moving in between his legs as he looked at the man. Amelia was a little surprised, given how Den was always so friendly to others, she would have thought he'd be jumping all over him, but instead he was guarding the doorway to the kitchen, staring down Hohenheim until he turned and left into another room. "Does Den not recognize him or something?" She asked Pinako, curious as to the dog's behavior.

"He's been like that since he saw him earlier." Pinako said, and she looked back at the dog, "Den! Come here and leave him alone!" She called out, and the dog made his way back into the kitchen, going to his bed and laying down, though he kept a wary eye on the kitchen doorway. "I don't know why he's like that, I've only ever seen him act that way with Hohenheim. He just doesn't like him." She looked over, "Careful now, don't cut off a finger there."

"Oh!" Amelia went back to her work and went back to helping Pinako with dinner, the two working in silence except for Pinako's occasional commands, or Amelia asking questions.

---

As dinner cooked, Amelia went upstairs to find where she would be staying, seeing an open door to an empty bedroom. She poked her head in, seeing it looked like a nice room. It had a double bed that had a bedspread to match the curtains, and a desk covered in screws, some odd tools, and metal pieces of piping and scrap. She could only guess this was Winry's room, and maybe where she did some of her work on the automail. She found a bookshelf and she curiously looked it over. Most of it was engineering textbooks, and some medical books as well, all of it focusing on biology. "Dedicated worker…" Amelia commented to herself as she reached for one of the books, opening it up out of curiosity and seeing a few medical diagrams that detailed how the arm looked, and the chest and the stomach. She briefly wondered if automail organs were something that could be made… and then immediately doubted it. An iron stomach would just be really heavy, and probably not good for the rest of the body, not to mention rust-prone.

She put the book back and stood up, heading out of Winry's room and down the hall to another open door, seeing Edward sitting on a bed and writing in a small notebook, scribbling down something and focused solely on that. She waited a moment before knocking on the open door, getting his attention, "Is this the room?"

"Yeah, your bed's over there," Edward said, pointing to the bed across from his and going back to writing in his book. She put her things down on the mattress, and then looked back at him.

"So… dinner's pretty much done, it just has to finish cooking." She said, and she heard Edward let out a hum. She pursed her lips a little, "So… are we going to do this or what?"

"Do what?" Edward didn't look up as he kept writing.

"You said we would do some alchemy training before dinner," Amelia said, and Edward let out a small hum in acknowledgment, still not looking up. She frowned and reached over for his notebook, putting her hand on top of it and pushing it down to make him look at her, "Edward, I need this training if I'm going to have any hope of being a state alchemist."

He sighed and put his notebook down, "Fine, alright. Let's go outside and do this." He pushed himself up.

"Shit, you don't have to sound so eager," Amelia said sarcastically as she followed him out.

"I was in the middle of something, alright?" He defended himself as they walked down the stairs and out of the house, "So how far have you gotten in your transmutations, anyway?"

"I know the basic standards for transmutation," Amelia said, "The equations and ratios for changing some of the more common elements."

"That's good. What else?"

"I can't transmute a lot of things in super-detail." She said, "I can make basic shapes without too much issue, but if you wanted me to make a tiny statue of something, it wouldn't really look like it."

"Then I guess we can just do some transmutation drills and see how that goes," Edward said as they stepped outside and made their way into the yard. He looked around before stopping over one little area that was devoid of grass and clapped his hands, putting them into the dirt. Amelia watched as the ground shook from the electricity of a transmutation, watching the dirt change and take new shape until it looked like a statue of a horse wearing a rather detailed saddle. "There, see if you can make that."

"Are you kidding?" Amelia looked at him in disbelief, "First of all, that statue is as tall as you are. Second, I've never transmuted anything to that size."

"I don't care if it's small, just make the horse." Edward said, coming around it, "Practice makes perfect, creating with alchemy is a lot more than just changing one element into another. It's also about knowing the exact way you want them made and putting everything in the right place." He came over to Amelia's side and waved his arm for her to try. She let out a small sigh, knowing this was going to be difficult as she came over to the dirt, kneeling down and pausing as she tried to think of a circle that would be good for this.

She eventually drew one out, making sure she got the matrices right before she put her hands to the transmutation and watched as the dirt began to shift and take shape inside of it. She focused on it, trying to get it to move in the same way that Edward had done with his transmutation. She focused on getting the soil to move in the right place, watching as it slowly began to take its shape and looked… sort of like the statue Edward had made. She ended up getting winded after a moment and she had to stop, pulling away to look at the statue she had made that looked… well, it definitely looked like a horse with a main and a snout and hooves, but the saddle wasn't nearly as detailed, and it was about half the size of Edward's horse.

"Not bad." Edward praised, coming over and knocking his hand into the statue and it crumbled to the ground.

"Hey!"

"Do it again," Edward commanded.

"Dude, you can't just knock it over!" She hadn't done as well as he had, but that was still a good piece of work, she thought.

"I'm going to keep knocking it over until you get it right," Edward said, crossing his arms and waiting for her to do it again.

Amelia grumbled but did as he asked, making another statue, this one was a bit more detailed than the last, with a longer tail and a bit more detail on the saddle, though it looked a little bit more like a camel's hump. Edward knocked it over and she made yet another that wasn't quite the same, and again Edward knocked it down. This continued until Amelia's body protested to where she couldn't even properly put her hands on the transmutation circle. She was exhausted, and she could feel her hands shaking while her eyes could barely focus on what was in front of her.

"Okay, we have to stop." She said, sitting back and letting herself fall back on the ground as she tried to rest. "I can't do anymore, I'm gonna pass out or something." She could hear the sound of her latest dirt statue getting knocked over, and then another as Edward got rid of the one he had made. "Why is that so tiring? I'm just a conduit for this stuff, why am I getting tired?"

"The same way you get tired after running around all day," Edward said, stomping their statues into the dirt to go back to how they were before. "Your body just can't handle the stresses for too long, but I didn't think you'd give out so early. It's kind of quick, even for a novice."

"Fuck you, I've never done this before." Amelia's words didn't have their usual bite, given how tired she was.

"Armstrong didn't drill you?"

"No, we'd always examine the transmutations before I made another one." She said.

"Well, now you're gonna do some drilling, so suck it up."

"I hate you."

"And you haven't referred to me once as Teacher through all of this." Amelia lifted her head up to glare at him, seeing the smug grin on his face.

"I will drop kick you into next week, I swear to god." She let her head fall back again, "You're such an asshole."

"And you're a bratty piece of shit." His comment was met with a kick from Amelia, and he kicked her back in her side.

"Ow!"

"You started it."

"Fuck you, I did not!"

"Edward!" Pinako's voice hollered from the house, "Come inside! Dinner's ready!"

"Okay!" Edward shouted back, offering his hand to Amelia to help her up. She reached up and took it, letting him pull her to her feet before they started the walk back into the house.

"Is detail really that necessary if I'm transmuting?" She asked, looking over at Edward, "If I make a shitty brick out of clay, it's still a brick."

"It helps if you need to transmute a weapon, especially in situations where you need to think on your feet." Edward explained to her, "Trust me, alchemy's saved my ass a lot of times with the convenience of clapping my hands and making a sword or something in a tight spot." She briefly flashed back to the incident with Scar, where Edward had transmuted a sword from a broken pipe. "It helps if you know you can make an actual knife or a gun or something when you need it and not some lumpy mess that could explode on you."

"Okay, fair enough…" Amelia sighed as they walked inside the house. She noticed that Den was sitting off to the side of the kitchen, staring down at something from the doorway. It wasn't long until they both came in and saw Hohenheim sitting at the table with Pinako, all the plates having the same portions of meat and potatoes.

"Alright, come and have a seat," Pinako said as she took her seat across from Hohenheim. Edward glared at him while the older man simply looked back at his son.

"I'm not hungry." He said, and he turned around, "I'm going to bed."

Amelia watched him stomp up the stairs, and she stayed where she was, looking back awkwardly at Pinako, who just gestured to the seat beside her. She sat down and started to eat with them, and at first, it was silent save for the clinking of silverware on plates. After a while, Pinako spoke up and started talking to Hohenheim, telling him about all the things that had happened in his absence. She told him about Edward becoming a state alchemist, about how Edward's mother had died from an illness that had swept through the countryside and then just catching him up on all the things going on with their neighbors. She didn't ask him where he had been, she didn't scold him for never calling or sending a letter, she just talked to him, and Hohenheim seemed to listen.

"...And now I think Edward's taken on a student, right?" She looked over at Amelia, "Due to… what was it you said?"

"Um, just some… extenuating circumstances." She answered, "Things didn't end up working out with Major Armstrong. Things got a little crazy and he couldn't really find a balance between his job and me." Pinako nodded and went back to eating.

"And how are his lessons?" Hohenheim asked in a soft tone of voice, the first time he had spoken since they had all sat down together, and she jumped a little.

"Oh, um… well, they're… okay, I guess?" She was a little flustered, "We only just started this stuff today, so… I'm just being drilled on my transmutations right now because they're a little sloppy." She took another bite, giving her an excuse not to talk for a few seconds.

"I didn't think he would become such an accomplished alchemist so young." Hohenheim said, "To think that he's at a level where he can take on students…" He went back to his food and continued to eat.

Amelia swallowed her bite, thinking of what to say before she spoke, picking her words carefully, "He's a pretty famous alchemist these days, him and his brother. I know there are some people that aspire to be like them." Hohenheim nodded, and Amelia thought he would ask about more, but he didn't. The dinner table went back to being quiet and Amelia finished up her plate, saying that she would be upstairs and resting up for the train tomorrow since the first one out would be in the morning and she wanted to make sure to sleep well for it. Pinako bid her goodnight and went back to Hohenheim.

Amelia went back upstairs to the room she was sharing with Ed and saw that the light was still on. She opened up the door, seeing Edward had ditched his red coat and his leather clothes for a pair of boxer shorts and a tank top. He had let his hair out of his braid and it curtained over his face as he hunched over his notebook in his hands. He looked up at her as she came in.

"I thought you went to bed," Amelia said as she closed the door.

"Couldn't fall asleep," Edward said, and she went over to her bed and started going through her things. She only had the clothes from the previous day, since she wasn't exactly prepared for this adventure when they had to leave so suddenly. She sighed and she looked back at him.

"I don't suppose you know any alchemy for magically washing old clothes that you could teach me?" She asked, and he looked up at her, shrugging as he put his notebook down.

"You could try just changing the fabric." He suggested, "I never really had to do that."

"It's fine, I can manage it." She said, putting her things back in the bag, "I don't really want to change it all that much anyway." She began to reach for the hem of her shirt when she stopped and looked back at him. He was already looking away for her to change, his cheeks a little red, "Where's the bathroom? I need to change."

"Down the hall," He answered, and she took her bag and left to go and change in there. She got comfortable and went back to the room, putting her bag down on the floor and making herself comfortable under the sheets. "So… how was dinner?"

"Oh, it was…" She wasn't really sure how to describe it, "Awkward, I guess. I don't really know your dad, and he didn't really talk much."

"No, I meant the dinner." Edward specified, "I couldn't give less of a shit about that asshole. How was Granny's food?"

"Oh." She shrugged, "It was good. She seasoned the chicken pretty well, and the potatoes were soft." She could hear Edward's stomach gurgling at her description, and she couldn't help chuckling a little. "So much for not being hungry."

"Oh, shut up," Edward said, turning over and getting under the covers, reaching over and turning out the lamp so the room went dark. The sun had set a while ago, and the room was silent save for the soft sounds of the world outside the window.

"You could at least say goodnight," Amelia said softly into the silence.

"Goodnight," Edward said gruffly, clearly not interested in talking anymore. Amelia could understand, his father didn't exactly seem like the ideal parent, and she could understand how easy it was to be put in a foul mood whenever someone talked about them. She always hated talking about her mother, having such a strong dislike for the woman.

"Goodnight," She said softly before letting herself drift off and go to sleep.

---

Sometime later in the night, Amelia woke up and opened her eyes to see the door to the room had been opened. She could see the light pouring in from the hallway, and before her, she could see Hohenheim, his back turned to her as he looked down at Edward's sleeping form. She wasn't sure what had woken her up, but she wasn't sure what to make of this situation. She grew nervous, seeing him just standing there for a few long moments.

After a second, Hohenheim reached out for him, specifically towards the mess of blonde hair on his pillow. Amelia didn't think he was the type to lash out at his son, and it didn't show in his actions at all. His hand open and outstretched, it almost looked like he wanted to pat Edward on the head… but he stopped before he reached him. He stood up straight, looking down at his own palm, and Amelia could only guess at what thoughts ran through his head. Maybe, after however many years he had been gone, he didn't feel worthy of showing such affection to his son, or maybe he had trouble expressing it? Maybe it was more that he didn't have the right to be so affectionate to him, given how many years he had been gone. It was almost sad to see. In any case, she watched him stare at his hand for a few moments longer and then he turned around quietly, and she closed her eyes to make it so she still looked like she was asleep.

She heard the door close and when she opened her eyes the room was once again dark. She could hear the faint sounds of him going down the stairs, and she sat up in bed, looking over at Edward.

He sat up too, after a moment and looked over at her. Amelia met his eyes in the dark, unsure of what to make of what she had just seen. He didn't say anything, looking over at the door, and then throwing off the sheets and getting up, heading over to the door and quietly making his way downstairs. Amelia wasn't sure what she should do, was he going to chew out his dad again? She figured it was probably best to stop him, and she got up from bed to follow him down.

She would have thought she'd seen him storming into the kitchen where Hohenheim was, hearing Pinako's voice drifting through the open doorway. He looked up at her as she was half-way down the stairs and moved up his flesh hand to tell her to stop, and brought an automail finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. She wasn't really sure why, but she guessed it was to eavesdrop or something, and she moved to sit down on the stairs. She listened as Pinako's voice came through the door, smelling a little of the tobacco that told her she was smoking her pipe as well.

"You haven't changed in the slightest," She said to Hohenheim, "All these years, and you look exactly the same." She chuckled to herself. After a brief pause, she spoke again, "Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come back sooner?" It seemed, now that they were alone, she wanted the chance to question him herself. As she spoke, Den came through the doorway, looking up at Edward with a wagging tail, a little happy to see him. Edward put a hand on his head to pet him and keep him calm so he wouldn't give away what he was doing. "Trisha was waiting for you until the very end."

Hohenheim didn't respond for a moment, but then his voice came through, much more clearly than the soft voice Amelia had heard at dinner, "Pinako, the lifeform my sons transmuted… are you positive that it was Trisha?" Edward's eyes went wide as he heard this, clearly suspicious as to why he was asking about that.

"Huh?" Pinako was left a little speechless at first, unsure of how to answer, "Well, I wouldn't… it didn't even look human to me, so I wouldn't think of it as-"

"No, that's not what I'm asking." Hohenheim interrupted her, "Did you notice the eye color? Or the hair color?" Amelia watched as Edward's expression shifted from suspicion to seeing the blood draining from his face, his eyes wide in horror at what Hohenheim was suggesting.

"Huh? What are you trying to get at?" Pinako asked, "Are you telling me that that wasn't even Trisha?" Amelia stood up from the stairs, stepping a little closer to Edward as he stared in front of him, desperately thinking of something as he listened, "For all those boys sacrificed, you're saying that thing they created wasn't even their mother?" Amelia reached out and put a hand on Edward's shoulder, trying to avoid Den who just sat by Edward's side, looking up at him with that innocent expression all animals seem to carry.

"I wanted to know for certain," Hohenheim said simply.

"That's got to be the cruelest thing I've ever heard!" Pinako said, and Edward couldn't hear anymore, turning away from Den and from Amelia to go back upstairs. Unsure of what she could do, she followed him back up, hearing Pinako's voice fading as they went back up. Once they were back in their shared room, she saw him go to his bed and she went to hers.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly. Edward didn't respond as he pulled up his sheets and turned his back to her. She made her way into bed, though she kept looking back at him, "...It was probably your mother, Ed." She said, hoping that was some kind of comfort… though she wasn't sure it was, "I doubt the world would have been so cruel as to take your limbs and Al's body just to bring a stranger back to life."

"Stop talking and go to sleep," Edward said sternly, and Amelia winced a little from the harshness of his tone. Her words hadn't comforted him at all, it seemed.

"Sorry," She whispered and said nothing more as she lay down and went to bed.

---

Amelia had trouble sleeping properly that night, dreamless and restless and unsure of what to make of what she had seen from the relationship between Edward and his father. She couldn't really compare it to her own relationship with her father, considering they didn't have much of one. He was always focused on his work and little else, she would see him every now and then at birthdays and holidays where he could take off work, but most times it was as if the house was without him. However, the difference was she had seen him more than once in the past ten years, much more than that, and she knew from what interactions she had with him that it was his version of making an effort. He did try, though he was consumed with his job mentally, he did attempt to be a father to her. Edward's story was different, his father walked out for reasons unknown, never contacted him, never spoke to him, never reached out in any way in all that time as far as she knew. And then he came back, also for reasons unknown, and they had barely spoken to each other than those first harsh words they exchanged.

She lay in her given bed, staring at the wall for a little while as she waited to see if she would either fall back asleep in the growing sunlight of the morning or if she would wake up and stay that way. But she heard something, the sound of Pinako calling for Edward to get out of bed since it was morning. That had woken her up easily enough and she sat up, scowling and clearly unhappy to be brought into the morning, looking over at Edward as Pinako called for him again. She was a little surprised to see Edward gripping at his bed sheets with his flesh hand, his face tensed up. She could only guess he was having some kind of nightmare as he tried to move in the bed, and then froze in place. She didn't think it was a pleasant experience, and she moved the sheets off of her legs to get up, walking over to his bed and putting her hand on his shoulder to try and shake him awake as Pinako shouted his name again.

He jumped in bed, his eyes opening wide and gasping for a split second, everything about him reading as the epitome of fear. "Edward!" Pinako called him again, and he looked over at Amelia, who pulled her hand away, nodding at the door where Pinako's voice was coming from. "Get out of bed already! Your father's about to head out!" Edward just reached up to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and Amelia went over to her bed, glancing over at the door and wondering if Winry might have any clothes that fit her.

"Do you think Winry would be mad if I borrowed some of Winry's clothes until I can wash mine?" She asked Edward, who let out a non-committal hum as he opened the curtains to the room, seeing his father walking down the path away from Pinako's home and down towards the train station. She stood up again, "Edward, I'm not wearing the same clothes three days in a row. I need to wash them."

"Hm?" He looked back at her, "Oh, uh, I don't know. Ask Granny or something." He looked back at the window once more before he took off the blankets and moved to get up. "I'm gonna go wash up." Amelia frowned as he left, but she supposed it couldn't really be helped. He probably had a lot on his mind from the last night and what he had heard.

She made her way out of the room and downstairs in the clothes she had worn yesterday, which were a wrinkled, frumpy mess, "Um, Ms. Pinako?" She called out to her.

"Oh, good morning," Pinako said, poking her head out of the dining room.

"Do you think I could borrow some of Winry's clothes so I can wash these?" She asked, pulling at the collar of the shirt she wore, "This trip was kind of out of nowhere and I didn't really have time to prepare…"

"I think that will be alright, so long as she gets her clothes back." Pinako said, "Go on up to her closet and see if anything fits you, I can get the wash bucket ready for your clothes."

"Thank you," She headed back upstairs to Winry's room, hearing the pipes rumbling a little as water rushed through them for Edward's shower that he said he was going to take. She opened up the closet there, seeing mostly some coveralls and work clothes, as well as a few tanks and tube tops, not really anything fit for going out… but she supposed she wouldn't be going anywhere until her clothes were washed. She picked up one, trying it on and it was a little tight in a couple of places, with sleeves and legs that had to be rolled up since she was a bit shorter than her.

She picked up her own clothes once she was dressed, pulled back her hair with one of Winry's hair ties to keep it in place until she could get her turn in the shower, and went downstairs with her own outfit. She had some simple breakfast that Pinako had prepared, which was just some toast and some oatmeal, and Edward came down soon enough to join them.

"Edward, there you are." Pinako greeted him with a disapproving frown, "You could have at least gotten up a little earlier, you waste your mornings in bed when you come around here."

"Yeah, yeah." Edward waved it off as he got his own breakfast, shoveling the oatmeal in by the spoonful. Pinako huffed but didn't push it anymore than that.

"Well, after breakfast, we might as well do a maintenance check on you, since you're here." Pinako said, "It's not often I get the chance to do it, considering how rare it is for you to come over this way."

"Oh. Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Edward kept eating as he spoke, so his cheeks were filled with oatmeal as he agreed with the older woman.

"Ed, gross. Don't talk with your mouth full." Edward scowled and showed her his open mouth full of food out of spite. "Ugh! God, you're disgusting!"

"And you're annoying," Edward shot back. Amelia took a spoonful of oatmeal and flung it at him, grinning as she saw it hit the side of his shoulder, "Hey!"

"Knock it off!" Pinako's voice cut through their fight, tossing Edward a towel to wipe his shoulder clean, "Have you been having any problems with your arm? Or your leg?"

"No, not that I've noticed," Edward said before he took another bite.

"Well, we'll still take a look." She sat up in her chair, glancing over at Amelia, "By the way, the bucket for your clothes is out back, you can go and wash your things after breakfast if you like."

"Uh… what?"

"You'll have everything you need: washboard, soap, and you can hang it up on the clothesline."

"Um… I've never washed my clothes by hand before." Pinako looked up, and Amelia expected her to offer to do it for her, but instead…

"Well, I suppose now's a good time for you to learn." Amelia frowned, not exactly thrilled at the idea of doing her own laundry, and she heard the old woman chuckling, "You can't cook, you can't do laundry, what kind of woman are you that you don't know how to do these things?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you're not going to make it too far without those skills, you know."

"I've been doing just fine, thanks."

"Oh, sure. You've had other people doing it for you all your life, haven't you?" That touched a nerve with her, as she wasn't exactly wrong, but her tone reminded her too much of what she would hear from her mother, "One of the problems with being around the rich is you never learn how to take care of yourself, and it turns you all into these spoiled, entitled people who don't know an egg timer from a frying pan." Edward chuckled a little, and Amelia's scowl only grew. She ate another bite of her toast and got up, taking her clothes with her outside to get started on washing them. She could handle herself just fine! She would show them!

She got outside, getting a hose and filling up the bucket Pinako had out, getting a box labeled "soap flakes" and got to work. She wasn't going to be the spoiled brat they thought she was, worse than that was that they had called her entitled. Her! She didn't ask for anything unreasonable! She was just trying to be a normal person, and she wasn't going to let them just tell her that they knew her when they didn't! They had no idea about who she was and what she had done, or where she came from, they had no right to make any assumptions about her like that!

---

Edward glanced out the window, seeing Amelia still scrubbing at her clothes in the bucket, pretty fiercely dragging her clothes up and down the ridged metal of the washboard. She had been going at it for a while, and she had whipped up plenty of suds in the process, her arms were pretty much sleeved in bubbles. She had probably used too much of the soap for the water to handle.

"She's still going?" Pinako asked as she dropped down her toolbox on the table top, looking up at Edward.

"Yep, still going." He said, "She doesn't really know what she's doing."

"I didn't think all of that talk would get her so riled up, but hell, I'll do it more often if it means she'll start doing my laundry." She chuckled to herself and Edward grinned, coming over to let Pinako examine his arm and his leg. After a few taps here, and some oiling up there, she stood up and wiped her hands clean, "So your limbs have been treating you well?"

"My arm and leg work just fine," Edward assured her.

"I can see Winry's taking her training very seriously," Pinako commented, and Edward looked over at her, having forgotten for a moment about Winry's apprenticeship in Rush Valley.

"Has she called?" He asked, figuring she must have told her grandmother all the details about her new apprenticeship and everything she's learning.

"Nope," Pinako shook her head and smiled, "I can tell just by looking at the automail. Her skill's gone up quite a bit."

Edward looked back at his arm, smiling as he rolled his shoulder, getting a feel for it, "Hm… It doesn't look any different, but now that you mention it, it is better, huh?" He could feel it a little bit, that his fingers moved a bit more easily, his wrist turned a little quicker, and it didn't feel quite as heavy as it used to. Winry really had dedicated herself well to this craft, and it showed in every new limb she made for him.

Pinako chuckled proudly to herself, "I was afraid she might come running back as soon as her training got hard, but I guess I was just worrying needlessly." She tossed away the rag she had wiped her hands with, going to put her tools back in the box since she wouldn't be needing them. Edward still looked down at his hand, knowing that Winry had every reason to be proud of her work… but if he hadn't been so careless, he wouldn't need an arm or a leg like this. His mind cycled back to what he heard his father say the other night, and he could feel his stomach twisting uncomfortably. His worst fears had come to haunt him that night, knowing he was the reason why things were the way they are now, and knowing what he had done to his mother… but what if it wasn't her? What would that mean? Would that mean he had done all of this pointlessly? What would it mean for Alphonse? What would it mean for their mother?

The more he thought about it in theory, the more twisted his stomach became until he felt like he had no other choice, "Granny…?"

"What is it?" Pinako asked, looking up at Edward, and her proud smile that she had worn for Winry left her face as she saw Edward's expression. His mouth pressed into a firm line, trying to get up the nerve to ask her whatever it was he was going to ask her. She put down her toolbox and turned to him, concerned, "What's wrong, Ed?"

Edward's flesh hand came to rest on his automail arm, "There's… something I need you to help me with."

---

Amelia looked up at the clouds that were rolling in, not liking how grey and dark they seemed, "Man… it better not rain." Despite that, the clouds continued moving in the sky, indifferent to her desire to have them go against their nature and keep the land dry. "Shit…" She grabbed her clothes off of the clothesline, feeling the dampness soaking into the coveralls she was wearing as she walked back in, "Hey, Pinako, the weather's looking a little shifty, so is it alright if I hang these up in the bathroom?" She paused when she saw that Pinako had gathered up some gardening tools, and Ed had a shovel in his hands, "Uh… what's going on?"

"We're headed up to my old house." Edward said, "You can stay here."

"No? I'm not allowed to be alone without some kind of lock or supervision." Amelia remembered as much, considering she wasn't a free citizen of Amestris and technically still a felon. "Remember?" Edward sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I can lock you up in a room or something with alchemy." Amelia grimaced at the idea.

"Or she could come with us," Pinako said, "We could use the extra set of hands." Edward didn't seem eager to agree, but he consented to that idea with a single nod of his head, "Go ahead and put up your laundry to dry and come back down. We're going to be doing a little excavating."

"Okay…" Pinako pointed her in the direction of the bathroom she could use, placing her clothes to hang over the side of the shower rod that held the curtain so the water could drip into the tub and down the drain. She came back down and Pinako handed her a bucket, inside was a trowel, a few brushes, measuring tape… "Um, what exactly are we going to Ed's old house for?"

"Edward wants to…" Pinako trailed off, trying to find a way to word it, "He wants to dig up his transmutation, from when he and Alphonse were young."

"His mother?" Pinako nodded grimly, and Amelia could guess why. After what his father had said last night, he must have been going through that day over and over again to try and be sure of what had happened, and it would be hard to know for sure without seeing any evidence. "I'm surprised he had the strength to bury her with only one arm."

"He didn't, I was the one that buried it." Pinako said, "Edward was still recovering… and that thing didn't really seem to belong on the floor of their house." Amelia didn't say anything more and she walked out with Pinako and Edward.

As they headed down the path, Amelia could see some remains of what must have once been a house. There were piles of bricks in the shape of the walls, one of them in the remaining tower of a chimney, though it didn't get very far. Supportive columns shot out into the sky, their pointed, scorched ends stabbing into the grey sky in the silhouette. Whatever didn't bear scorch marks had crumbled and fallen, sinking into the dirt below the home that was now overrun with grass and weeds.

Pinako led the two of them around to the side of the house, "This is about where I buried it." She said, pointing to the general area in front of her. She looked back at Edward, that grim expression she had still on her face from the house, "You're not really going to dig it up, are you, Ed?"

Edward's automail hand clutched at his chest as he looked at the spot, and Pinako's brow creased in worry and concern. She knew this couldn't be easy for him, and Amelia didn't seem to want this for him, either, "Why don't we go back?" Pinako suggested.

"No." Edward lifted up his head, "My stumps are aching from the weather, it's about to rain." He looked up at the sky, overcast with the grey clouds that threatened to drop water on them at any moment, "Let's just hurry and do this." He grabbed his shovel and brought it to the spot Pinako had said, "Here, right?" Pinako nodded, and Edward brought up the shovel down into the dirt, pressing it in further with his foot, and started digging. Pinako looked at him and decided she might as well get to work, too.

"The faster we do this, the faster we can go home." She said, going over to Amelia to pull out the trowel and the other tools, handing the trowel to her, "Here, get to work on digging. I'll start yanking up some of the grass so it'll be a little easier to dig." She took the shovel and nodded, heading over to a spot not too far from where Edward was to start digging. She pulled up little bits of dirt at a time, throwing them to the side where they would knock against the remains of the brick wall and be out of the way.

"How deep did you bury it?" She asked Pinako.

"Not too deep, just enough to keep the dirt flat." She replied, "But it's been here for a few years, so we'll be digging up through whatever's grown over it." Amelia nodded, and admittedly wasn't looking forward to digging up the remains from Edward's transmutation. She looked up at him, seeing he was completely focused on the shovel as he pushed it down deeper and deeper into the dirt, moving around it to make the hole wider. He wanted to make sure he knew, for sure, who it was that he had made, and she could see it in his face.

"I guess I can look at this as an advanced lesson…" She muttered to herself as she started to dig into the ground a little more, making sure to get up more and more so they could hopefully make easy work of finding this thing, wherever it was.

They had only been working just long enough for Amelia to work up a sweat when it started to rain. The raindrops came plopping down from above into a shower, and Amelia looked up, suddenly glad she hadn't left her laundry outside to dry. "I guess we're a little too late." She said, knowing this rain would only make their process more difficult from here on.

She heard gagging and looked over to see Edward hunched over, heaving and recoiled in disgust at the sight of him vomiting, "Jesus!" She stood up and Pinako rushed over to him as he heaved again, rubbing at his shoulders where his stumps had ached. Amelia couldn't believe it at first, had he been straining himself that hard? Did his injuries hurt him so much that his body couldn't take this? This couldn't be that important that he would have to dig this up in these weather conditions when he was clearly not in the shape to do so!

"Don't push yourself so hard, Ed…!" Pinako said, and Edward heaved again, and she still tried to comfort him, "Let's head on home." She didn't want him to push himself so hard, it couldn't be good for him, and she didn't want this work to hurt him. She knew that this kind of exercise wouldn't be easy for someone with automail, even more for someone with automail and ghost pains from the barometric pressure. Edward had constantly pushed himself during his recovery time, much more than he ever should have, and she knew that was undoubtedly having an effect on his body. She didn't want this day, digging up his transmuted mother's body, to break him.

"No…!" Edward said fiercely, lifting his head and Pinako could see the fire burning in his eyes, "I'm not going to be able to move forward until I know for sure." He reached up, grabbing the handle of the shovel that stood upright from its place in the ground, using it to help him stand, "An alchemist is a person that seeks the truth. I can't just look at what's convenient and ignore everything else…" He glared down at the ground where the transmutation remains lay, knowing this was part of his reason, but even more so were the words of his father, haunting him from the day before. He grabbed the shovel and started digging again as the rain still came down.

Amelia stood up, "Ed, this rain is only going to make the digging harder, it'll just make mud and puddles that are just harder to bring up. We should head back."

"No! I won't run away from this…!" He said as he still kept digging. Amelia looked at Pinako, who was clearly worried, but it was obvious that Ed wouldn't be dissuaded. She went back to work grabbing the grass and weeds to pull them away, and Amelia sighed. She grabbed the trowel, contemplating whether or not she should really be doing this at all. At best, this was a lesson on the dangers of human transmutation for her, or even that human transmutation was just the creation of a human, and not necessarily a specific one… at worst, this was labor she didn't have to do for someone she didn't know that well and didn't care enough about to do.

She looked back over at Edward, who was still focused on the ground and moving it aside, even as the rain made streams of water to fall into the hole he had made. She could easily just contribute this to an act of selfish spite against his father because of what he said yesterday, but the more she watched him at work, the more she knew it was beyond that. There was more to this than what she was seeing on the surface, and she could make the choice to stop if she wanted to, no one was requiring her to do this. She sighed to herself, looking down at the trowel she had been given, getting down on her knees by the hole she had made before, and started digging again.

She was digging through the years that Edward had been in recovery from losing his arm and leg, the years he spent recovering from the automail surgery, the years he spent in the military as a state alchemist that led him to where he was now. She kept digging and digging, seeing the ground change color just slightly as she passed a deep enough layer and she started widening her hole to make it a little easier to make sure she was finding what she needed to find. The rain continued coming down, and soon it went from pouring to storming, hearing the thunder rumbling above them as the rain came down in a heavy torrent that soaked them all. More than once, Edward had to stop digging and take a moment just to heave, emptying out his stomach a little more at a time. Every time, Amelia would stop digging, thinking that at some point, Ed had to hit his limit, say he has to stop and they should go home, they could start it again after the rain had stopped. But every time, as soon as Edward had calmed down and he no longer heaved, he went right back to it.

They kept it up for a long while, the rain endlessly covering them as they kept digging. Eventually, Pinako had to stop and take some time to rest, citing her hands and bones aching and how an old woman like her couldn't do too much. She went to rest in the cover of a burnt tree, which didn't offer much, but it was better than just standing out in the rain. Amelia was tempted to join her, they had been at it for about an hour and a half, and the rain was starting to let up, but they had made some good effort in clearing away the dirt, digging about two feet into the ground, but there was still no sign of any corpse, any remains at all. That didn't mean Edward stopped, he kept bringing up one pile of mud after another, one pile of clay after another, still digging down deeper into the earth to find this thing that had weighed on his mind and pushed him forward for years since. Amelia was muddier than she had ever been and soaked so much that she almost didn't mind the rain anymore, but she could feel the coveralls clinging to her skin, and everything was hurting. She was tired, and she decided to take a few moments to breathe before she kept digging. The sooner they dug it up, the sooner they could go back, get clean, and rest.

As they approached their second hour, the rain was starting to let up from its torrential downpour to a simple showering. Amelia had made her hole connect with Edward's, and Pinako was still taking some time to rest. When Edward brought his shovel down, there was the distinct sound of it meeting something hard, but brittle, that cracked underneath the sharp edge of his spade. Amelia's head poked up and Edward dropped the shovel to dig with his hands, pulling up a few strands of muddy hair from the remains of the skull he had just broken. He stared at it, his eyes wide and his hand shaking, quickly standing and rushing over to their bucket that had been filled to the brim with rainwater from all this time. He dipped the hair inside of it, sloshing it around until it was clean and pulled it back out.

His hand shook even more as he stared at what he held, his breath catching and taking his voice away for a second. His face was pale, and his eyes wide in an expression of horror, "Granny…" He turned to Pinako, "Mom's hair was a light chestnut color…" His flesh arm shook as he lifted up the hand that held the small lock of hair to reveal that it wasn't the color he said, "This is black…!" Immediately, Pinako and Amelia got to work excavating the rest of the remains, Edward joining in as they kept moving the dirt as the rain grew lighter, making it a little easier for them. Soon enough, they had found half of the skull that had misplaced teeth incisors and no molars, a few of the vertebrae, ribs that didn't curl but instead stood flat at a full length of over two feet, the pelvis, the femur, the remains of the legs, enough to see that it was a collection of parts that could be vaguely called human. Amelia couldn't imagine what it must have looked like before, seeing that whatever skin that had been on it had rotted away, save for a few patches on the skull that had some hair left.

Pinako examined everything, looking over the misshapen bones, while Amelia and Edward stood by the side to look at it. She was looking at what she could have only guessed was the femur bone, twisted and misshapen though it was, holding measuring tape to it, "This femur, it's much too long." She commented as she pulled back the tape and put it in her pocket. She went to the pelvis, which looked more like a badly-made bowl from white clay with two great holes in it. There was hardly enough there to fit the bones they had found for the legs, "And this pelvis… I'm pretty sure it's male."

"It is?" Edward asked, stepping forward as Pinako stood up.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid this isn't your mother, Ed," Pinako said to him. Amelia looked down at the remains of the never-meant-to-be human he had made, knowing that despite all his effort, all his studying, all his work, it was not his mother. She could only imagine what was running through his mind at that moment, and as she turned to him to see if he was okay, he collapsed down onto his hands and knees next to the skeleton.

"Ed!" She knelt down next to him, thinking he was going to get sick again, but he didn't. Instead, he stayed that way for a moment… and then he started laughing. Amelia pulled away, wondering if he was hysterical and looked back at Pinako as his laughter grew louder, the woman looking just as worried as she did at his reaction.

Edward laughed loudly, throwing his head back and straightening himself on his knees, and then he quieted as he stared up into the clouds that still rained on them, "Then that's it… It really is impossible to bring the dead back to life. The undeniable truth…" He took in another breath, laughing a little bit as he reached his hands up to his head, pushing his hair back as he chuckled, "It was impossible all along…!" He bent over, his hands grasping at his hair as he laughed in his… well, she wasn't sure. He almost seemed crazy as he did all of this, and she didn't know how to react to it. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, and he calmed down, stilling and becoming quiet, the hysterical smile leaving his lips, but he stayed bent over.

"Edward, now listen to me." Pinako said, coming over to him, "You've got to get a hold of yourself!"

Edward took in a long breath and let it out before he lifted up his head, calm once more, his hands moving down to his sides, "I'm okay," He reassured them, "It's okay." he looked down at the skeleton before him, "From the moment I made this thing, it's been a symbol of my despair, but not anymore. Now it's an emblem of hope." He straightened, and they could see that determination was back in his eyes, a clarity that hadn't been present before shining through his golden irises, "Al can be returned to normal."

"What?" Amelia didn't follow that logic as she looked back at the remains, and then to him.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Edward asked with a wry smile, "The answer to my questions was right here at the starting point this whole time." Pinako nodded but didn't say anything else to him. They were silent for a moment, and the rain let up until it was little more than a few drops plopping down, the sun starting to shine through for them. Edward sat back, taking a moment to breathe as he looked down at the skeletal remains, and Amelia took a moment to rest as she looked at the same bones.

She couldn't follow his line of thinking, how was this proof that Alphonse could be brought back to normal? Could he make him a body and put his soul inside of it? That didn't seem like the best idea, and she wasn't even sure of the science behind transmuting souls, much less a body itself. This person he tried to transmute was supposed to be his mother, but instead, it was just a man, a stranger he didn't know, or maybe someone that hadn't existed until he decided they should.

But if that was the case… what about Alphonse's soul? Maybe that was the question at hand. Edward had transmuted this man on the same night he transmuted Al's soul. What was the guarantee that the soul he transmuted was actually his younger brother? What proof did he have that it was truly Alphonse Elric? Her interactions with Alphonse had been… well, they had never been bad, a little awkward at times, maybe, but he seemed like a good person. Was there a chance that wasn't the real Alphonse Elric in that armor?

"Hey…" Edward's voice broke the silence, "I want to make… I want to make a proper grave for it." He gestured to the remains.

"...What are you going to put on the gravestone?" Pinako asked.

Edward was silent for a moment before sheepishly admitting, "I don't know," He shifted and looked down at it still, "This thing… I don't know how, but I saw it move. It looked at me." Amelia looked down at the remains, "It was a real human being, if only for a moment. I gave it life… and watched it die. It was a human being. It deserves a grave." He looked over at Pinako, who shrugged and that was her only answer, and he looked back at Amelia, who only mirrored that action. He stood up and took up the shovel again, taking it and walking over to the hole where they had dug it up, and started digging around it again, working to make it into a grave for it.

Amelia came over and eventually helped, making it so that it was deep enough for Edward to be satisfied, and helping him carry the remains into it, shaping it so that it still looked like the human it had been… or was supposed to be. Amelia didn't think it was human as she stared at the twisted bits and pieces, the skull was too lumpy to properly hold a brain, the ribs didn't curve properly, the pelvis couldn't fit any legs or muscles properly. It was a mushed-up mess, and she imagined it certainly didn't look like a human with any skin or organs added to the mix. Personally, she thought Edward used the term "human" a little too loosely on it. It was a strange gathering of bones that had been part of a body that lived for a few brief moments and then died.

She began to help Edward in burying it, bringing back the dirt they had brought out back on top of it. No one said any words about whatever it was, how it had lived or died, it simply had been and no longer was. To Amelia, this thing wasn't human, but… the more she thought about it, the more she thought maybe Edward had to be so loose with the term of 'human' because if he didn't… if he acknowledged that this thing wasn't really a person, then he might also have to admit the same of his brother, being nothing more than a soul bound to a suit of armor with no pulse, no skin, nor warmth. She guessed it was just part of how he was as a person.

At the end of it, the ground was flattened, and Edward found a good brick they could use for a headstone, putting it up on top of where the thing was buried. "Amelia," She looked up at him from flattening the dirt of the grave, "Come here, I'll teach you a new transmutation circle." She was a little surprised at the sudden offering of a lesson, but she nodded. He drew it out for her in the dirt not too far from the grave, explaining each part of the circle and its matrices to her, a three-point circle meant for organic transmutation from the grass nearby, since the roots would reach into the dirt around it. She followed his instructions, clapping her hands and watching as the circle lit up, and in the dirt in the middle of the circle, a flower sprouted from the mud, and she kept going until it branched off from one single bloom into a small bouquet coming from a single stem. She pulled it out of the ground, and Edward made a gesture for her to lay it at the headstone, and she did.

Edward stood up, looking down at it, and Amelia stood beside him, Pinako joining them only a moment later. A moment of silence was held for the being that Edward had made, the thing that had a short life, but there was no doubt that it had lived.

After a few moments, Pinako looked up at Edward, "Ed… If this thing isn't Trisha, then… Then Al is…" She couldn't really bring herself to say it at first, "If human transmutation is impossible, then what about the soul you transmuted for Alphonse?"

"I was wondering that, too." Amelia admitted, "Like… how do you know that it's him for sure?"

Edward nodded, "I know, there are still a lot of things I need to check on before I'm sure." He said, and he turned to Pinako, "Granny, there's no doubt that Al and I are Mom's kids, right?"

"No doubt at all," Pinako replied right away, "I helped in the delivery of you two boys. You two are definitely Trisha and Hohenheim's children." Edward nodded, taking his shovel and resting it on his shoulder.

"Okay… good." He said, "Come on, let's get back to the house." Amelia and Pinako didn't argue, gathering the tools they had brought with them and carrying them back to the Rockbell residence. As they walked, Amelia couldn't help looking back at the remains of Edward's childhood home.

What had it looked like? What was it like to grow up in this place? She wondered about his life, about his childhood, the actions that led him to become who he was now. This house that held so many precious memories to him was gone, nothing but stone and would and charred bits and pieces, now with a grave around the back of it for the thing that he had made.

As they went down the hill back to the house, Amelia found herself looking at Edward's back. Before today, she had only seen him as someone that… well, probably wasn't going to ever think of her. Someone that would look at her and maybe just see a hindrance, or some kind of bother, or someone that just had a quick temper and a genius brain and a condescending attitude to match it. She saw him much differently now, seeing the sun parting through the clouds to rest on his golden braid for a few moments as he walked underneath it. He was more than just some genius kid who got lucky, he was more than just an alchemist, he was a person who had goals that he had to achieve, he was a person who worked hard to become what he was now, he was a person that valued life in almost all shapes and forms, even if those lives had done nothing but cause him pain and misery.

As they walked, she couldn't help but notice that his shoulders seemed much broader than she first thought they were. Broad shoulders to carry the heavy burdens he had placed on himself through his life until his goals were met.

---

When they got back to the house, everyone took a little time to clean up, take some showers, and dry off. Amelia changed into another set of Winry's clothes, with her apologies to Pinako for the inconvenience of borrowing her granddaughter's wardrobe, which Pinako waved off. As she came up the stairs from depositing the soaked coveralls with Pinako, she saw Edward on the phone, hearing a little bit of his conversation that made her pause, "It has to do with when you tried to transmute your baby… The thing is… what Al and I transmuted… it wasn't actually our mother." His voice trembled a little as he said this to the person on the other line, and Amelia could hear the sound of the person on the other end speaking up a little louder, though she couldn't quite make it out, "I'm sorry to ask you this, but the child you transmuted… are you sure that it was your child you brought back?" He waited in silence for a few moments before he pulled the phone away from his ear and hung it up.

"Who was that?" She asked, curious. Edward jumped at the sound of her voice.

"How long have you been standing there?" Edward demanded.

"Not long." Amelia shrugged it off, "Do you know someone else who did human transmutation?"

"Yeah… Al and I had a teacher that transmuted her baby." He said, going to the stairs and the two of them walked up together to the second floor. "I just… I wanted to see if it was really her child."

"You want to double-check on this theory about death being permanent, I guess?" She asked as they went down the hall together.

"Something like that," Edward said, the two of them heading into the room they shared and they each took a seat on their respective beds, both of them letting out a sigh.

"I'm going to be sore tomorrow." Amelia reached for her shoulder, rolling it a little, "I can already feel it. All that digging did a number on me."

"I'm sorry to drag you into this."

"It's not a big deal, I could have stopped digging whenever I wanted." She shrugged, and smiled up at him, "Besides, it made for an interesting alchemy lesson on human transmutation. Now I know you can't transmute a specific person." Edward nodded, and she frowned, "Though… I guess souls are a bit trickier, aren't they?" He sighed and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands going up to his head and resting it in his palms.

"Yeah, it's definitely trickier…" He said. Amelia couldn't help feel a little guilty, knowing she was reminding him of that fact that they couldn't be sure of, "I'm pretty sure the soul I transmuted is Al… but I need confirmation, to be 100% certain if the theory I have about his body is correct."

"And what is that theory?" Amelia asked.

"If I really did pull out Al's soul that night, and that really is him in that armor, then I should be able to find the rest of his body there, too."

Amelia's head tilted to one side, "There… where?" Edward lifted his head up, looking over at her.

"Oh… I guess you don't know." He sat up a little straighter, "The portal."

"Portal?"

"When Al and I committed human transmutation, it opened a portal to this… this realm that I guess we just call Truth."

"A portal to the truth?"

"A portal of Truth." Edward corrected, "Inside of that portal is all alchemical knowledge that ever was an ever will be, but it's really dangerous and not something that I would recommend." He gave her a hard look, "So don't go thinking about trying to open it, okay? To go into the portal, it costs a toll." He reached his flesh hand down to his automail leg, knocking on it, "It cost me my leg to see what I saw. You don't need to go losing any limbs, either."

"I doubt I'd have the skill to open it, anyway," Amelia said. Though she could sort of picture it in her mind… the white void she had seen in her dreams, a toll that had to be paid… She shook her head to rid her head of the memories of her recurring nightmare. "But… so anyone that performs human transmutation opens that portal?"

"Yes, and there's always a toll, no matter what."

"Okay, and then what? You have all this alchemical knowledge that just comes at random?"

"Well… no, there's a significant sign that someone's opened the portal." Edward said, "They're able to perform alchemy without the use of a transmutation circle."

Amelia's eyes widened, "Wait, the thing that got you into the alchemy program can only come from doing human transmutation?"

"Yeah, I didn't know that when I applied, but yes." Amelia let out a long groan, flopping back on the bed.

"Shit!" Edward let out a small laugh at the sight of her, "Don't laugh! I was counting on you teaching me how to do that! That was my guarantee into the alchemy program and acing that stupid goddamn exam!" She brought her hands up to her head and groaned again.

"I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. I've seen some alchemists get in for a lot less than what I did." Edward reassured her.

"Oh, yeah, they just accept like one person every year. How hard can it be?" Sarcasm dripped from every word.

"Well, look at the bright side. At least I can come visit you in prison." Edward's comment earned him a pillow thrown at his head.

"Screw you, man." Edward threw her pillow right back to her, and she caught it before it hit anything. "How am I supposed to avoid jail time if I can't get into that program?"

"You're not a terrible alchemist, you know." Edward said to her, "You actually do have a lot of promise, I could make you into a great one by the end of the year." Amelia looked up at him curiously, doubtful.

"You almost say that like a compliment."

"It is a compliment. I would have had to explain that transmutation circle for the flowers a bunch of times to some uneducated greenhorn." Edward said, "But you picked it up right away, and you made some pretty decent flowers for it, too."

Amelia wasn't really sure what to do with his praise, but she nodded, "Well… thanks, I guess." She glanced out the window, seeing the sun coming out more as the rain clouds passed them by, "I guess we missed the train to Central."

"There's a second one coming later tonight. We can leave before dinner."

"Oh. Well, that's good." She sat back, letting out a small sigh as she looked out the window, and then back at Edward, "I don't suppose… is there a way to avoid the toll for the portal?"

"You're not seriously considering opening it?" Ed looked genuinely concerned.

"Even if you say I have promise as an alchemist, that doesn't mean I'll get through. I need an ace in the hole." She said, "I know there are better alchemists out there, and I'm sure there will be some applying to this ultra-competitive program."

"You'll be fine." Edward reassured her again, "And you can't avoid the toll unless you have something to replace it."

"Like what, a spare leg?"

"No, like a Philosopher's Stone." Edward's expression darkened, "And you know what it takes to create that."

"Oh." She slumped over again, feeling a little hopeless, sighing as she tried to come to terms with everything, "I've been learning alchemy for almost two months now. I haven't progressed as far as I would have liked."

"Not everyone masters alchemy in the span of a single year." Edward said, "And even then, I'm pretty sure presenting a sound alchemical theory would be enough to get you into the alchemy program."

"I'm no good at math." Edward chuckled.

"Well, I'm sure you can figure out another way, I'll teach you what I can, alright?" Amelia looked up at him.

"Can't you just teach me how to transmute without a circle?" She asked, "I mean, you know how, right? The portal gave you the knowledge, can't you just teach it to me?" Edward grimaced and looked away from her.

"I don't know that it's that simple," He said, "The way I learned wasn't exactly traditional, and I can't guarantee that it could even translate over into just normal teaching…"

"But you know how to do it, right?"

"Well… yes, but-"

"Then you can teach it to me. If you've taught me how to do this, then you can teach me how to do that."

"It's really not that simple, no matter how much you wish it was." Edward insisted, "The portal gave me this knowledge to where it's just something I know, I don't think that I can translate it into words. The best way I know how to explain it is that… instead of outwardly drawing a matrix in an alchemy circle, I myself am the matrix."

"So, teach me how to be the matrix!"

"I don't think I can, Amelia. I'm sorry." Amelia slumped over and she sighed again, reaching up to massage her temples. "I can teach you a lot of alchemy, but I don't think that's something I can teach you. That was something that the portal put into my head as just… instinctual knowledge, it comes to me as easily as breathing."

"Great…" She sighed again and sat up, "Alright, well… If you ever figure out how to explain it, let me know." She moved over on the bed and lay down on her side, "God, I'm tired after all of that."

"Yeah, me too." Edward leaned back on his arms, letting out a breath as he looked at the wall ahead of them. There was silence in the room for a few moments, the two of them just resting for a minute, and Amelia started to close her eyes to take a small nap. "Why didn't you stop digging?"

"What?" She perked her head up.

"You said that you could have stopped digging whenever you wanted," Edward looked over at her, "So why didn't you?"

She wasn't sure how to answer that at first, and took a moment to think, "I don't know… I guess… seeing how determined you were to find answers, it made me want to find them, too." She shrugged relaxed against the blankets on her bed. "I mean… it's not every day you get to find out one of the biggest scientific theories known to alchemists is totally wrong."

"It's not totally wrong, we don't know that for sure." Edward said, "It's only a hypothesis for now, but having extra data can definitely help with that."

"Well… at the very least, I got to find out you fucked up." Amelia said, and then winced as she realized how blunt that might sound when she didn't intend it that way.

"Yeah, I won't deny that." Edward said, "I definitely fucked up in a huge way. And with this information, if my hypothesis is correct, then I can fix it in a huge way, too."

"Right." Edward stood up from the bed, going over to a closet and opening it up to pull out the coat he had worn back in the desert.

"Granny and I are going to go visit the graves of my mother and Winry's parents after lunch." He said, "I figured I owe them some thanks, knowing what they did in Ishval. And I think Granny deserves to know how they died."

"Oh, okay. Do you want me to come with?" Amelia sat up from the bed.

"Well, I'm not exactly allowed to leave you alone, am I?" Edward grinned at her, reminding her of the statement she had given before when they had tried to leave to dig up the corpse of the creation, and Amelia let out a small huff of a laugh.

"Right… I'll get my shoes on." She said, standing up off the bed and going to do just that.

---

After a filling lunch, Amelia walked out with Pinako and Edward to the local graveyard, holding a small group of bouquets that she had transmuted herself for the occasion. It wasn't much, but she figured she could at least help them use it to pay their respects. They went first to the graves of Winry's parents, Pinako's son and wife. Amelia laid a bouquet at each headstone, seeing the names of Yuriy Rockbell, and Sarah Rockbell. As she did, Edward told Pinako about what he had heard about their work, about how they stayed in Ishval even after being told they should leave for their own safety during the war. They treated Amestrians and Ishvalans alike for their injuries, never turning away anyone. And then Edward broke the news about how one of their own patients went mad and killed them both, and he didn't have an explanation for why.

Pinako listened to all of this intently, looking at the graves of the two lost Rockbells as Edward told their story. At the end of it, she nodded, "Thank you, Ed. It's good to know my son and his wife helped people." She smiled gently, "I'm proud of them." She went to their gravestones, laying a hand on her son's and closing her eyes for a moment before stepping away, and Edward took that as his cue to move on with her. The three of them walked back to another part until they arrived at a gravestone that read Trisha Elric.

Amelia laid the third bouquet she had made in front of the headstone and stepped back. Edward looked at his mother's grave for a moment, remembering what he had seen when he was last here when Hohenheim stood over her headstone.

"So Hohenheim… did he even bother to say where he was going?" Edward asked Pinako.

"Of course, he didn't." Pinako answered, "And I didn't a- Aaugh!" The sound caught Edward and Amelia's attention, "What's wrong with me?! I can't believe I forgot to give him the message!"

"Message?" Edward questioned.

"Yes," Pinako faced him, "A last request from your mother. She knew she was dying, and wanted to pass along something to him: She wanted to say that she couldn't keep her promise because she was dying before him, and she was sorry."

"Promise? What promise?" Edward hadn't heard anything about this before.

"You got me." Pinako shrugged, "Sorry to ask, but could you pass it on if you bump into him?"

"Why should I have to?" Edward didn't want to have to send along a message to the father that he would be more than happy to never see again.

"I know it doesn't seem like it, but he does care about you and your brother."

Edward scoffed, "Yeah, I'll pass it on." He said as he started to walk away, "Right after I clock him in the face."

"That's probably not the best greeting you could give," Amelia commented as they headed out of the graveyard.

"Yeah, well, he deserves it for being a bastard of a parent!" He growled, shoving one hand into his pocket to pull out his watch, checking the time, "We should get back to the house and grab our things. The train's going to be leaving soon."

"Yeah, alright."

"Heading back to Central already, are you?" Pinako asked.

"Yeah," Ed sighed, "Al's probably mad at me. I'm gonna have plenty of explaining to do."

"Yeah, no kidding." Amelia sighed, thinking it felt like a week ago that they left Central on this sudden trip to figure out what had happened to Maria Ross and be let in on this larger plan that was made by Colonel Mustang.

"Well, I wish you both safe travels." Pinako said as she walked with them, "I can probably find some leftovers somewhere for you two to take with you on the trip for dinner."

"That's okay, the train should have some food for us since it's going to be an overnight ride." Edward said, "But thanks anyway."

"You're welcome," Pinako replied.

---

Not long after they had gathered their things, Edward and Amelia could hear the sound of the train whistle as it rushed towards the station. The two of them rushed off with quick goodbyes to Pinako and ran down to the station to get their tickets before the train left. They managed to get on in time and found a pair of seats in a mostly empty car. Amelia sat across from Edward, looking out the window as the train began slowly moving forward, seeing the sky change from blue to orange as the sun started its descent.

"How long have we been gone?" She asked. "It took us a day to get here to Resembool… and then another day to get out into the desert, and then another day back from the desert, and then another day here…"

"Yeah, it's been a good while," Edward replied.

"I'm sure your brother will have been worried sick about you," Amelia said.

Edward chuckled, "Yeah, and he'll really chew me out once I get there. Probably about me being careless and reckless and not calling him and stuff."

"You probably could have called him to tell him you were alright." She said.

"Nah, Granny's probably calling him now to let him know I'm on the way back." Edward shrugged.

Amelia was quiet for a little while before she asked, "Are you going to tell him about your dad?" Edward frowned at the mention of him.

"It's not like it was important." He muttered.

"But you haven't seen your dad in like 10 years, right?"

"Twelve years."

"Really?" Amelia grimaced at the idea, "Jeez… he left when you were just a baby. Do you remember him from before he left at all?"

"I don't really want to talk about this," Edward said, crossing his arms and staring out the window, Amelia sighed and sat back. She pulled out her phone, going through her playlist of songs as she tried to figure out what she wanted to listen to first. She was quiet for a few moments, just scrolling listlessly through the options before she spoke up.

"I get it, you know." Edward looked over at her, her focus was still on her phone, "I know what it's like to have sucky parents." She just focused on scrolling up and down through the song list in front of her, "My dad isn't around much because of work, and pretty much whenever I see him he's on the phone with somebody talking about work. His entire life revolves around it, but, you know, he tries. He makes time for me on important days, like my birthday, so it's not as bad… but my mom is more of a problem than he is." She frowned as she thought of the woman, "She's a real uptight bitch, always thinking about her image and how she looks, not just in physical appearance, but making sure she has this important social standing." Edward's arms relaxed as he listened to her, "She's always trying to get me to do things to… make me more important. She's getting older and she knows it, and she can't have the same standing that she used to when she was a young, pretty wife, so now she tries to do it through me. She keeps telling everyone that I'm a genius, or that I'm a prodigy or something… it's total bullshit, by the way. By all rights, I'm just a regular kid with regular skills."

"And they don't even talk to each other. My parents live like the other one doesn't exist. My dad is pretty much never home, but my mom wouldn't dare be caught cheating and risk losing her status in her special communities." She put her phone away as she couldn't focus on it anymore as she talked, starting to vent a little to Edward, "She's not a slut or anything, but she's definitely not a good mom. She only tries whenever someone's watching, so someone can hold her accountable for not being this "amazing" parent… Like, she'll only be friendly with me at parties, or at a recital when everyone around her is telling her how great I did, and then she'll just take the credit by saying it's a product of good parenting or something." She looked out the window of the train, watching the landscapes zip by, though she could easily see her reflection in the window glass, "Sometimes, I think she just had a kid because it was just what everyone was doing… like I'm just a new accessory to her to make her look better. It's really hard to think that she ever cared about me when she hardly ever talks to me, like really talks… She had nannies raise me, she never fed me or changed me as a baby, I don't even think she held me." She paused and looked back over at Edward, wondering if she had annoyed him with this talk.

Instead of seeing some irritated expression, she saw someone who was listening to her, he was focused on her and taking in everything she said. There was no judgment on his face towards her, he was just listening. Somehow, that was comforting to Amelia and she felt herself relaxing a little bit in her seat. When she paused, Edward took that moment to speak, "It sounds like you never really knew your parents."

"No, and I don't know that I ever will." She said, "But I want to make sure I'm nothing like my mother ever was. I don't want to be this… this vain, vapid thing that just cares about herself and her money and her status. Anything that's not related to her is just… pointless, and when I try to talk about what I think, what I feel, it just… doesn't matter. I gave up talking to her a long time ago." She slumped back in her seat. "At least your mom was good. She cared about you a lot, didn't she? That's why you tried so hard to bring her back." Edward nodded.

They were quiet for a little while longer, just thinking about their home lives, who they had been before they got to where they were now. Edward could only imagine how a young Amelia must have felt, neglected and rejected like that… He could easily picture her trying to be the perfect child to get their attention, or maybe even the worst child. Maybe she had been, but he wasn't sure it was his place to ask anymore. Even so, she must have tried so hard to get them to pay attention to her, and now she was here without them, trying to be an alchemist for her own reasons, and he did think she could be a pretty great alchemist. She just needed a lot of refining before she got to a level of mastery.

She looked down at her phone, plugging in her earphones as she decided she was going to start up a playlist since she had the time, and she paused, looking up at Edward. She held out one to him, "Here, do you want to listen for a little while?"

Edward looked at the earbud, shrugging before he reached for it and put it in his ear. It was a little awkward sitting across from her, so he moved over to sit next to her. She started up some music, "Here, you'd probably like these guys." She played some Fall Out Boy, thinking it would be a band Edward would probably have liked, had he been from her world. And he did seem to enjoy the songs as they rode for a while, the train continuing down the tracks into the sunset, heading for Central.