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…

34. A New Plan

34

When Edward suggested they all start making their way back to Central, initially everyone was against it. But as Edward insisted that was the right way to go, Amelia backed him up, and the two chimeras agreed to go along with it, though they weren't happy about it at all. With their stolen car, they managed to get pretty far away from the north after a few hours, with the snowy landscape shifting to something a little more green as they went further south, and Amelia and Edward had time to talk and catch each other up on what's been happening in a little more detail. Amelia told him about how Captain Buccaneer and Major Miles had organized her smuggled escape with Lieutenant Falman and how she got in touch with Bernice. She had spent most of her time waiting for them in her given bed, however. Mostly sleeping, since it was almost impossible to tell what time it was in the darkness of that empty sickbay. She had no idea exactly how much time had passed before she made it out and saw a calendar at the hotel. Edward told her about how the reason that the chimeras helped him in the first place was because he kept them from being crushed under a pile of rubble, especially after Kimblee told him something that still stuck with him about his merciful ways. He was certain that Kimblee was still alive, and because he hadn't killed him, there was a definite chance he would come back to kill Edward again.

"I don't know," Amelia said when she first heard this, "I mean, I'm not saying he wouldn't if he was given the order to, but the thing is I think this guy operates on his own for the most part. He's a scummy piece of shit who works for the homunculi, but he's only doing it for his own reasons."

"Yeah, I got that feeling from him, too." Edward agreed, "So… I guess that means he won't come after me unless he's been ordered to."

"And they probably won't order him to if they can't find you." Edward nodded in agreement with this, "So right now, it's probably best if we keep to the shadows, never stay in one place for too long, at least until this is over."

"Yeah, probably." He agreed again.

"And speaking of… this," Amelia made a vague, all-encompassing gesture with her hands, "We need to figure out a plan for how we're going to go forward against… uh…" She glanced over at the chimeras, and then back at Edward asking a silent question that he was quick to answer.

"They know," he said, "I told them everything after they got me to the doctor's."

"Really?" She was a little surprised he had spilled the beans so quickly.

"Well, they wanted to know what was going on between me and Kimblee, so I told them. And then, when I was apparently 'too vague,'" Edward made exaggerated air quotes as he said this, "They got the rest of the story."

"You can't just tell us that your boss and Kimblee's boss are different bosses without expecting us to ask anything," Heinkel commented from the passenger's seat.

"Whatever," Edward brushed it off, "But yeah, they know about everything. The homunculi, Father, the transmutation circle, everything."

"Wow," Amelia looked back at the other two chimeras, "What did you say your names were again?"

"I'm Heinkel, and this is Darius." Darius lifted his hand up from the wheel in a sort of greeting, though he never took his eyes off the road.

"So, if you guys don't mind my asking, what kind of chimeras are you?" She had never actually seen it, so she was a little curious, "The other two guys were like a pig and something else."

Darius smirked, "Yeah, Zampano's part boar and Jerso is part frog."

"I'm part lion, and Darius is part gorilla," Heinkel said.

"Oh, cool. So, when you transform, do you have, like, claws and stuff?"

"I do, but Darius doesn't. His is more of an advanced muscle-fiber thing." Heinkel shrugged, "I don't know much about the details though. The scientists who made us would be able to give you a better idea of what all we do."

"Huh," Amelia looked over at the back of Heinkel's head, "So, I guess you know what we're doing then. You guys are just… okay with joining in? I mean, this stuff can be kind of dangerous."

"Working with Kimblee was pretty dangerous, too." Darius chuckled, "I think we can handle walking around with a couple of kids." Edward scowled at the title of 'kid', but Amelia nodded.

"Yeah, alright… Well, thanks for whatever help you give us." She said before looking back to Ed, "So, we should really figure out what we're going to do about Father and everything else."

"Yeah," Edward agreed, "I actually had some time to think it over on the way here. Al's probably spent some time learning alkahestry by now, so I think—" He was cut off as they went over a sudden bump that rocked the car for a second, followed by a persistent flapping sound.

"Ah, damn!" Darius cursed as he pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"What happened?" Amelia asked.

"We just blew out one of the tires." Darius said as he shut off the engine, "I might be able to fix it, let me see how bad the damage is." He got out of the car, and Heinkel followed him.

"There should be a spare tire in the back," Heinkel talked with his comrade as the two of them went to see how bad it was. Amelia watched as they crouched down to look over one of the back tires and glanced back over to Ed to see him doing the same.

"Should we go and help?" She asked, "We can probably patch it with alchemy or something, right?"

"Maybe, it depends on how bad it is," Edward replied, turning towards the window to see the two men at work. After examining the damage to the tire, Heinkel went to open the trunk of the car. "Hey, how's it looking?"

"We must have hit something pretty bad, the hole is massive." Heinkel said as he started to pull at the carpeting on the bottom of the trunk to look for a spare tire, "We'll have to replace it…" As he managed to pull up the floor, he let out a displeased grunt, "And we don't have a spare." He pulled out a small chest instead of a spare tire, "Looks like whoever owned this car thought hiding this was more important than an extra tire."

"Are you serious?" Edward asked incredulously.

"What is it?" Amelia couldn't help being curious.

"Who knows? It's locked up tight, and I doubt the key is anywhere in here." Heinkel put the floor back down and the chest on top of it instead of into its hiding place. He let out a long sigh as he put his hands on his hips, looking around the road. "I'm pretty sure we passed some kind of road sign back there, but I don't know how far it is to the next town."

Darius stood up from where he had been crouching down, "Hey, can one of you kids check the glove compartment for a map?" He asked, and Edward nodded, climbing over the seat to go and open it up while Amelia was more interested in the hidden chest in the trunk. She reached over the back of the seat to try and pick it up, letting out a loud grunt from the weight, dropping it back down as she couldn't pull it up from where she was kneeling on the seat.

"Damn, that's heavy!" She said, flexing her fingers that had grabbed onto the corners of it. "What could they be hiding inside of it?"

"Does it matter?" Edward asked as he pulled out a folded up old map and handed it to Darius.

"Maybe? I mean, if we stole the car, we might as well steal what's inside and see if we can sell it." Amelia said, "It's not like we have a lot of money to cover our trip right now."

"I still have my research account?"

"Yeah, and the last time you pulled any money from it, the military was notified almost immediately. If we pull any money from your bank, we'd have to be ready to leave the town right then and there, and we can't really go anywhere with a busted tire." Edward frowned at her and made his way out of the car to come around while Darius and Heinkel opened up the map to try and get an idea of where they are to figure out where they should go since they couldn't use their car anymore. Edward came around to the trunk and reached for the chest, looking over its lock.

"It's only got this one padlock on it?" He looked over the rest and quickly noticed that wasn't all, "Hey, look at this," He tipped the small chest onto its sides to show her, Amelia bending over the backseat to get a closer look, "It's been sealed shut with alchemy." Just like he said, the metal opening for the chest had been transmuted so that it would be impossible to open by a normal person, even if they had cut off the lock.

"Someone really wanted to hide something," Amelia couldn't help commenting, "Whatever it is, it's got to have some kind of serious value if they got an alchemist to seal it shut for them."

"That's certainly a possibility." Edward said, tipping the chest back, and letting out a yelp as it came down on his flesh hand, "Aargh! Damn! Why is that so heavy?!" He waved his hand back and forth frantically to try and flick away the pain on his swelling fingers. He glared down at the little chest and clapped his hands together, bringing them back to it, the seal disappearing and the lock melting off into a little block of steel that stayed unattached from where it had been. He opened it up and the pair looked inside, a little surprised by its contents. On the first level, all they saw was a pair of small books, "That's it?" Edward reached for one and Amelia reached for the other, revealing what was hiding underneath them, and they both stared down at it with wide eyes. The rest of the chest was filled with a square container full of a red liquid substance that eerily resembled a philosopher's stone

Edward immediately put down the book he had grabbed to pick up and inspect the container, sliding it out of the chest to get a closer look at its contents. He squinted into the red liquid, giving it a gentle shake and watching how it moved. Amelia instantly grew concerned at the size of how much was in there, it had to be at least a liter of the stuff, and she had only seen Philosopher's Stones the size of pebbles… how many people would have to be sacrificed to create a philosopher's stone of that size? "Is it…?"

"No, it's not a Philosopher's Stone." Edward replied, relieved, "It looks like it's only red water."

"Red water? Like water with food coloring?" It seemed an odd thing to keep locked up in a chest.

"No, red water is the liquid ingredient for an alchemical amplifier. If you put it under enough pressure, it makes a red stone." Edward put it back down, picking up the book he had been examining a moment ago, "It's basically a cheap imitation of a Philosopher's Stone, but instead of people it's made through more mundane means, and it has an extremely limited number of uses in comparison to the real stone. It's a powerful amplifier, but it can't bypass equivalent exchange the same way the stone can. You're still limited to certain transmutations with it, but it's about as close to the real deal as you get without making it." He looked through the book, flipping through the pages idly, "I guess whoever was up north was researching its uses."

"You think so?" Amelia asked curiously.

"Yeah, this guy?" Edward closed the book he was reading and pointed to the name of the author, "He's basically the authority on the subject. He figured out a streamlined process to crystallize it into a stone."

"Nash Tringham?" Amelia read the name aloud, looking at the other book, seeing that it was yet another book about red water, written by the same man. "Huh, I guess so." She looked down at the container, "I don't suppose red water also happens to be valuable?"

"Only to alchemists, I'm afraid. We can't really pawn this, though it is a pretty decent amount of red water," Edward said, patting the square container inside the chest, taking the books and starting to put them back, "But it's pretty rare to find the means to make it so that probably explains why it was locked up tight and hidden away like this."

"Damn," Amelia sighed, "I was hoping we could sell it to afford a hotel tonight instead of having to camp out in the car."

"What's wrong with camping?" Edward asked as he closed the chest, transmuting the former lock back into its previous state, though leaving it unsealed.

"Edward, I am a spoiled brat, do I look like I've ever gone on a camping trip?" Amelia dryly asked, making Edward smile and chuckle.

"Good point, camping would probably make you miserable."

"So miserable," She agreed, laughing with him a little.

Heinkel and Darius made their way around to the back of the car where the two of them were talking, Darius still holding onto the map, "Hey, it looks like there's a town not too far from here. It's about a mile or two down the road. It doesn't look very big, but they might be able to point us in the direction of a mechanic for the car."

"Well, can't we just patch it?" Amelia asked, turning to Edward, "I mean, we can use alchemy to fix it, right?" Edward looked down at the tire and frowned.

"The rubber around the hole is pretty frayed, I can probably extend it, but I'd be thinning out the rest of the tire for it, making it a lot weaker." Edward said, "And I could probably pressurize the air around it for the transmutation, but at best the tire might just get us into the town and that's it."

"It might be easier than just walking straight there. It'd take us another four days to get down to Central if we did that." Heinkel said, and he and Darius stepped away from the tire to give Edward space to work. He knelt down and Amelia made her way over to the window to watch him work, seeing him clap his hands and bring them down on the tire, watching as the frayed ends of the popped hole, which was about the size of a dime, began to seal shut as the transmutative light shimmered around it, puffing back up until it looked like a normal tire again.

"Perfect, everyone back in. We'll see about getting a spare tire at the mechanic." Darius said as he and Heinkel started to make their way back into the car.

Edward shut the trunk, coming around and back into the seat next to Amelia while she got comfortable and tried to forget that the car didn't have seat belts. It was a strange sensation to be without a seatbelt in a car, but at the same time this country was set back several decades from her own, and it gave them an excuse. And so, they set off again in the car, hoping to make it to the next town without bursting the tire again.

---

They had just made it past the sign that said "Welcome to Yeoz" when the tire popped again, loud enough to catch the attention of a local who had been at a nearby house. They could see the man jumping out of his rocking chair as Darius pulled the car over to the side of the road again.

"Damn…" he sighed as he started to step out to look at the damage. The man across the way started making his way off of his porch over to them as they all started to file out of the car. Darius looked over at Edward, "Think doing it again would get us into the center of town faster?"

"It would basically be the same as driving on a balloon at that point." Edward grimaced, "I don't know that it would be any faster. I told you it would only last us a couple of miles."

"Does this mean we have to walk the rest of the way in to find a mechanic?" Amelia couldn't help whining a little bit, clearly not happy about having to walk a mile or two to get into the center of town where they might find a mechanic. Meanwhile, the man was making his way closer onto the road where they were.

"You want to go to the mechanic and not bring the car? We're gonna have to push it the rest of the way." Darius grumbled, not happy about it either.

"Oh, you're not serious. Really?"

"Stop whining, it's the best we can do right now." Edward chided her, and she let out a long sigh.

"Okay, whatever."

"You folks alright?" The voice came from across the road as the man started making his way over to them. He was a little beyond all of their years, dressed in overalls with a face that had seen many days working in the early light of the sun. A born and bred farmer if anyone could guess.

"We're alright, one of our tires just blew out," Heinkel said as he came over to the man, "Would you mind pointing us in the direction of a car mechanic?"

"There's one down the road this way, but if I remember right that might be an automail mechanic." The farmer replied, lifting up his pant leg and tapping his other leg against his metal replacement, "Still, he's a big fan of machines and toys, he might be able to do something for you."

---

Amelia couldn't deny being just a little thankful for being a girl surrounded by men as they came into town. After they had gotten directions from the farmer, she went to go over to the car to find a place where she could help push, but Edward insisted that she stay in the car and steer while he pushed with Darius and Heinkel. She was 99% sure he had said that because she was a girl and he probably didn't think she could, but she wasn't about to skip out on a chance to avoid that kind of labor. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little bad whenever she watched Edward trying to push the car through the mirror. Since there were three of them and only two corners (and Darius and Heinkel were both too big to share any space with Ed at the back), so they were taking turns on moving the car while the third would go to the side and make sure that everything was moving okay given their tire situation. Edward was dwarfed in comparison to the other two, so watching him shove the car along with them was almost comical, but she knew better than to make any snide remarks out of the window as they continued down the road, which had switched from pavement to dirt as they got closer to what was supposed to be the center of town.

As Darius switched places with Ed to take his shift pushing, Amelia immediately felt the difference in how the car started moving faster, though it was still a walking pace and Edward could catch up to the window where she was. She had it rolled down since that was the only way to get any kind of air conditioning with the engine shut off. She poked her head out of the window, her hand still on the steering wheel as she looked over at her blonde friend, "How are we looking?"

"Seems okay, the tire's just lousy," Edward replied, and he came up to her window, walking beside her as they looked at the road ahead of them, seeing a small house in the distance. "Think that might be him?"

"Maybe, it couldn't hurt to ask." Amelia shrugged. She looked back over at Edward, who only seemed pensive and tired as he looked at their destination, "You think you'll be okay? Maybe we can get him to look at your arm and leg since he's a mechanic?"

"Nah, they're fine," He dismissed, "I haven't had any problems with them."

Amelia paused for a moment, "Um… Ed?" He glanced up at her, "If… um…" She glanced away from him as she tried to figure out how to word it, "Would… Would it be okay if I asked you about them?"

"My automail?" Edward was surprised that she was asking permission.

"Yeah,"

"Yeah, that's fine." He shrugged indifferently, his hand coming up to rest on the edge of the window as he walked alongside the car. He looked over at her curiously, a mischievous smirk on his face, "Why are you being weird about it?"

"I'm not being weird about it." Amelia frowned.

"Yes, you are. You're acting like it's some deeply personal question." Edward chuckled, "You know how I got them, and they're basically the same as any other arm or leg, just made of metal instead of flesh and blood." He raised up his metal hand to show her, wiggling his fingers in her face playfully. She pushed his hand back down with an annoyed expression.

"I just haven't asked about it up until now because I didn't know how, okay?" She replied, her cheeks turning a little red as he teased her, "I mean, I've never known anyone that's lost a limb before I met you. How was I supposed to know it was okay to ask?" Edward only laughed a little in response and she frowned, "Okay, whatever." She rolled her eyes, "Forget I said anything."

"Oh, come on, I'm just messing with you," Edward said, "Just ask me."

"I don't want you to be a dick about it."

"I'm not! Honest!" Edward said quickly, still smiling at her.

"Well… I know with some amputees, they can still feel stuff through their fake limbs," She began, "So, can you still feel with that arm and leg?"

Edward shrugged, "Kind of. I mean, I can feel if something's hitting them, and I can feel them connected to my arm, or some of the repairs when Winry's doing them, but I can't really feel anything else."

"So, you just have no real sense of touch there?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"So… how does it work? Like, how does your arm move like normal? I know it's connected to your nerves, but how are you able to have machinery that connects to something so small?"

"Ah… I never really paid that much attention to the way that worked when Winry did it." Edward confessed with a sheepish expression, "I know there are some coils and springs involved?"

"That's… not very helpful, but I guess I shouldn't be asking someone about their own arm." Amelia commented with a sarcastic grin. Now it was Edward's turn to roll his eyes.

"I have more important things to worry about than the inner workings of my automail, you know."

"Right, I know." She sighed, starting to turn the wheel of the car so that they were on the other side of the road where the house sat as they started to come closer, moving her head out of the window, "Hey, I'm gonna turn it to the right so we can park it next to that house!" She shouted back to Darius and Heinkel.

"Okay!" Heinkel's voice called back as they started moving the car with her steering so they were on the other side of the road until they came up to the spot by the mailbox. Amelia pulled on the parking brake to stop the car, and Darius and Heinkel decided to take a break on the edge of the bumper while Edward looked over at the house. It looked like a pretty simplistic farmhouse, nothing overly special about it safe for a sign in front of the steps leading up to the porch that read 'Weston Automail' in big, blue, hand-painted letters.

"Reminds me of the Rockbell place." Edward couldn't help commenting as Amelia stepped out from the front seat and closed the door.

"Yeah, I can see it." She agreed as she started to make her way down the small footpath from the mailbox to the front door with Edward just behind her. The wooden porch floor creaked under their feet as they went up to it, Amelia rapping her knuckles against the wooden door and waiting. As they waited, something moved the curtain in the window next to the door, and they watched as a gray cat hopped up onto the windowsill, with an automail back leg that it sat on, looking at the two strangers with a tilted head.

The door was shortly opened a minute later by a young man with red hair hiding under a yellow bandana, and a face spattered in freckles. He was dressed in coveralls that had grease stains in various places, especially around the pockets that were filled with tools on his right and left sides. "Hey, you guys have an appointment?" He asked, quick to wipe his hands on a cloth from his chest pocket.

"Uh, no, we were actually looking for some help with a mechanic and we were told this would be the best place to come," Amelia said.

"We have a car with a flat tire and no replacement, so we could use a little help," Edward said, pointing his flesh thumb at the car where Darius and Heinkel were taking a break.

"Oh, yeah?" He glanced over at the car past them, a twinkle in his eye and a grin slowly breaking onto his face as he saw it, "That's one of those newer cars, isn't it?"

Edward shrugged, "Uh, don't know. It's not my car." The boy stepped around past them, though his eyes stayed on the car, his hands no longer being wiped on his cloth, now gripping at it as he stared at the vehicle.

"What kind of engine is it? Diesel?"

"I don't know. It's not my car." Edward repeatedly pointedly.

"Right, right," He turned to them with a grin and held out his now-clean right hand, and Amelia could see plenty of freckles spattered along the back of his palm and up his exposed arm in his sleeve, "I'm Aaron Weston, I'm the local mechanic around here."

"Amelia, nice to meet you," She greeted him, and he nodded at her before offering that same hand to Edward.

"I'm Ed," He introduced, and as soon as their hands touched, Aaron's eyes lit up.

"Hey, you've got automail!" He said, and without asking another word, yanked Edward's hand forward and pushed up the sleeve of his jacket to look at his arm, letting out an impressed whistle as he turned it over to look at the other side, "Wow, that's some fine work there! You need a tune-up while you're here?" Edward quickly yanked his arm back with a glare, much to Aaron's disappointment.

"No, I don't need a tune-up! We just need help with our car!" Edward snapped at him, and Amelia elbowed him.

"Ed, don't be rude!" She hissed at him and turned to Aaron with a friendly smile to try and recover what Edward almost ruined, "I'm sorry about his behavior, but he did just recently get his automail checked by his mechanic, so there's really no need for a tune-up. Do you think you could help us with our car?"

"Oh, sure. I can take a look at it, though I can't promise we have any tires. We might be able to call someone for a replacement though." He went back to the house, "Hey, dad! Can you come out here real quick? Customer's here!" There was some shuffling before an older, middle-aged man started to make his way out. He had the same red hair his son did, though he was lacking in freckles and instead had traded them for crow's feet and laugh lines. He smiled at Edward and Amelia, dressed in a shirt and denim pants.

"Hey there, how can we help?" He asked.

"They just need some help with their car," Aaron pointed it out to his father, and the older man nodded.

"Alright, let's go see." He said, and the two made their way over to the car, Darius and Heinkel getting up to greet them and talk with them about the problem. Amelia glanced back into the house, seeing the inside of the home looked very cozy and lived-in, though her eyes were instantly drawn to the phone sitting on a small table. Her mind went back to her last phone call with the Major, how she was calling him to tell him where she was… and then she just hung up on him as soon as she saw Darius at the bank. She couldn't help but feel a little worried the more she thought about it. The Major could be a little… extreme, and she wasn't sure if she trusted him not to panic when she suddenly hung up like that. She was thinking about how she should really call him back, but was distracted as the cat from the windowsill had made its way over to the door, rubbing its face against the doorframe while looking up at the new guests.

"Aw, hi kitty," Amelia crouched down, holding out her hand for the cat to sniff, not wanting to make it uncomfortable and risk having it bite her. She watched as the cat happily stepped under her palm to get her to pet it, the gray fur soft under her fingers, much to her delight, "Aw, such a pretty kitty you are!" She was very happy to continue petting it, cooing at it sweetly, much to Edward's amusement.

"I didn't think you liked cats," He commented.

"I do when they're sweet little things like this!" Amelia said, watching as the cat continued to come closer, unable to resist the temptation, she went to pick it up, holding the gray cat in her arms to continue petting it. She could feel the difference in its back legs as she let it sit in her elbow, the metal one sitting just a little heavier than the flesh one, "What's your name, pretty kitty? Hm?" She scratched gently under the cat's chin, hearing it purr loudly as it leaned into her scritches.

"Ah, I see you've met Stormy," A voice came from inside the house, showing an older woman with long brown hair approaching them with a friendly smile, "She's a very sweet cat, she just loves people."

"I can tell!" Amelia said with a happy smile, she beamed up at the woman, "I guess you must be Mrs. Weston?"

"I am," She said, "Though, you can call me Antonia, if you like."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Amelia, and this is Ed," She said, introducing the two of them as she still scritched Stormy's chin. Since Amelia's hands were too occupied, Antonia reached out to shake Edward's hand, and he did with a polite smile.

"Oh, I see you have automail," She noticed it in his handshake right away, "You haven't come our way for any mechanical problems, have you?"

"No, we're just here for some help with a car," Edward said, gesturing to where Aaron and his father were examining the tire with Darius and Heinkel, discussing their options, "A neighbor of yours said you might be able to help."

Antonia looked up, nodding as she watched her boys moving around the car, "I see, you're having some engine troubles?"

"Busted tire," Edward replied.

"Ah, I'm not sure we'll be able to help much with that." Antonia replied apologetically, "We don't exactly have many car parts laying around here. We might be able to help patch your tire though."

"Would you happen to know where we could find a car mechanic?" Edward asked.

"I could call a friend and see if they could help," Amelia spoke up, getting Edward's attention and Antonia's, "Would it be alright if I used your phone?"

"Sure, go right ahead." She gestured to it, and Amelia thanked her before walking inside, putting Stormy down on the floor before she went over to the device. Edward quickly rushed up behind her.

"What are you doing? Who are you planning on calling?" He demanded, instantly worried.

"I'm calling the Major," Amelia whispered back to him, "I was supposed to call him back in North City, but I saw Darius at the bank, and I hung up on him. You know how he can get; this is just to make sure what we're doing isn't jeopardized by his… well, you know." The Major was the definition of eccentric, and he could definitely be impulsive enough to just start the trip up to North City if he thought she was in danger. "Think about it, what if he just randomly decides to show up?" Edward immediately grimaced.

"Yeah, okay, call him." He said, stepping away and going back over to Antonia and starting to talk with her more about a possible car mechanic they could talk to about their issue.

Amelia quickly dialed in the number for the Armstrong estate, hearing it ring a few times before someone picked up, "Hello, Armstrong Residence," It was Horace again.

"Hello, could I speak with Alex, please?"

"Ah, Miss Seymour," He recognized her voice, "Good to hear from you again, I'll see if Master Alex can spare the moment before his departure."

"Departure?" She didn't get an answer to her question as she was made to sit and wait on the phone for a few moments before she heard a thumping noise that sounded like rumbling footsteps, and then a voice suddenly answered the other end of the line.

"AMELIA!"

"Ah! Christ!" She held the receiver away from her ear.

"AMELIA, THANK GOODNESS YOU CALLED AGAIN! I HAVE BEEN SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" Armstrong sobbed loudly on the other end.

"Oh my God, stop crying!" She nearly shouted into the receiver, "I'm fine!" She glanced over to the door, seeing Edward and Antonia were still talking while the other members of the Weston family were talking with Darius and Heinkel about the car, "I promise, I'm okay."

"I am so happy to hear that…! I feared the worst after you ended the call so abruptly!" Armstrong said on the other end, and Amelia could so easily picture the waterfalls of tears streaming down his cheeks as he spoke, "Now, just tell me where you are, and I'll come get you. I've already got the car set up for the travel, we'll hide you in the estate and everyone will be so happy to know that you're well—"

"Actually, part of the reason I'm calling is to tell you that you don't have to come get me."

There were a few beats of silence on the other end of the line, and Amelia grew a little worried that the line was disconnected before Armstrong spoke again.

"What's happened?"

"Well… I found my teacher," She said, glancing over at Edward, "And… the military thinks he's missing, so… we're kind of just going to run with that. It'll be easier for him to move around without you-know-who tracking our every move."

"I see. And it's just you and Edward?"

"Well, no, we managed to find a couple more allies… I think. They said they're mostly just coming along with us because they don't have much of a life to go home to."

"I see, and you're sure that you'll be safe?"

"Uh…" That was a good question, one she had a difficult time answering, "As safe as we can be? I mean, technically we'll be fugitives, so we'll have to be careful… probably a lot of nights spent camping out, not really able to stay in one place for too long… probably even after we meet back up with Alphonse."

"You're going to meet with Alphonse?"

"We're hoping to, and once we get back with him, I think we can start to come up with a good plan to face those bad guys."

"I see," She could hear a smile in his voice, and she felt a little relieved, "I'm sure you'll know I'll have to tell the girls that you won't be coming back. They miss you terribly, you know."

"I have no doubt, I miss them, too." She said, "Maybe if we get the chance, we'll sneak our way through a back door on the Armstrong estate if we're ever near Central again. I don't suppose you would be upset if we decided to make your mansion our base of operations for a while?"

"You and Edward Elric will certainly be welcomed. We'll make sure the back gate is unlocked for you to come in whenever you wish."

She let out a small laugh, "Thanks, Major." She didn't realize how good it felt to hear his voice again. When she called him before she had been panicked, worried about her situation and paranoid about everything, but now in the moments following an escape, being back with Edward, and knowing that he was going to be okay and that she was going to be okay, she felt much better and a sense of relief washed over her. Once they met up with Alphonse, they could come up with a more cohesive plan to overtake Father and the homunculi before things got too bad… whenever they were going to enact their plans. They still weren't sure of when exactly that was. Though, now that she felt that relief, she couldn't help asking about that small bit of information she'd heard from the butler, "But, uh, weren't you going somewhere? Horace mentioned you were leaving when I called."

"Ah— Yes, that was, erm… I was on my way to drive to North City."

Amelia's smile instantly fell as she grimaced, "You're joking."

"I was very worried about you."

"Oh my god," She sighed out, bringing a hand up to her forehead and sliding it down her face before letting out another sigh that turned into a laugh. It figures she would have nailed that guess about his behavior, "Okay, well, I guess you can cancel that trip."

"I'll get to unpacking right away, just make sure you take precautions where you can, and please be safe, Amelia."

"I will," She promised, "You be safe, too, Major." She wondered… did he know? "I mean… You-know-who has infiltrated really high up into the military… like really high up. So, you'll have to be really careful."

"I know, Amelia," He said seriously, "Colonel Mustang told me of the Fuhrer's true identity."

Then he did know that the Fuhrer was a homunculus, she was a little glad to know he had been kept in the loop, though a little worried about what that meant for his safety. "And… are you… okay with that?"

"Hardly," Armstrong chuckled, "But my devotion to my country is still as strong as it was before I knew, I simply have a better idea of who exactly is the enemy to the nation of Amestris."

"I see," She smiled a little, "And what about Olivier? I know she was just recently transferred to Central, how are things there?"

"Ah, Olivier is doing well, as far as I am aware."

"I'll guess that the girls are happy to see their older sister, aren't they?"

"Actually, she has not come home since she was transferred."

"Really?" While she would have thought she would have gone home to stay there while in Central, she supposed it made sense that she wouldn't want to go back, "Oh… I guess she doesn't get along very well with your family, does she?"

Major Armstrong let out a long sigh, "It's been an issue we've discussed, but ultimately mother and father see no faults in what choices they've made, nor does Olivier see any faults in hers. I'm afraid it's a bit of a stand-off between them, it has been for years."

"I got the impression that she might not be thrilled with her parents because of… well, something about you becoming the chosen head of the family."

"When did you get that impression?"

"Oh, uh… we talked a little, at Fort Briggs. It was on pure accident, she was trying to interrogate me, and we just ended up talking about the Armstrongs."

"I see… well, it's true, she and father have been at odds for a long time, as well as with other members of the family, myself included. However, she's been taking the time to stay at the barracks instead of the mansion for the time being, and she's often very busy with members of the senior staff."

"Oh, good."

"Good?"

"Oh, uh! It's— uh, we talked about it before and, um…!" She wasn't really sure how to tell him that she was acting as a kind of mole for their side to see about their plans and get more finalized details they could make use of, not that they'd had much contact with her since she had been transferred… Still, it might be the best idea not to blow her cover, "I-I mean, she's just… doing her duty, I guess. Considering that she's kind of… rebellious and all sometimes, ha, ha! She doesn't need to be causing any trouble with them." She ended with a small, nervous chuckle.

She could hear Armstrong humming thoughtfully on the other line, "I see," Was all he said, and then added on, "Ah, and before I forget, have you been made aware of Selim's true identity?"

"Selim?" She tried to recall the name, "Um… You mean Selim, the Fuhrer's son?"

"He is also part of you-know-who." Amelia's eyes widened.

"Are you serious?!"

"Extremely, apparently he's one of their most powerful, so be careful."

Amelia could hardly believe it, that little boy who had been so sweet was not only a homunculus but one of their most powerful?! She still remembered their trip to the Bradley mansion, how he had dragged along Ed and Al because he was such a big fan… was that just an intimidation tactic working with Bradley? A way to make them feel safe while still watching them? She glanced over at Edward as he was walking over to Heinkel and Darius, apparently making their way inside.

"Thank you for telling me, Major. I have to go."

"Stay safe,"

"You too, goodbye." She hung up the phone and looked over at the others, "So, uh, what's the damage?"

"Yeah, they can't replace the tire," Edward said, "But they said there's probably an auto mechanic in the next town over that we could call up."

"It would still take them about a day to get here, though," Aaron said, "So, you might just want to make your way into town, there's an inn you can stay at and we can call the auto mechanic to let them know where you are. Dad can help tow your car out that way and they can give it a look tomorrow."

"Uh, I guess?" She looked over at Edward for approval, and he just shook his head. They couldn't really afford to delay their trip any more than they already had. She let out a small sigh, understanding that this meant they were probably going to have to abandon the car that they had… which was a terrible shame.

---

The following morning was a lovely day, with a bright sun, clear skies, and a perfect mild temperature for a winter's day. It was a day that made the work of manicuring the lawns and shrubberies of the Armstrong estate easier and more of a delight than it was a burden. Many of the staff were in high spirits, what with the good news of not only Strongine's engagement, but also the safety of the beloved family friend Amelia Seymour that had been reported to them. Yes, all along the outside of the mansion were pleased workers, though inside the other staff were experiencing a bit of an icy atmosphere, sending chills up and down their spines. They had received an unannounced visit from the Armstrong's eldest daughter, who had come in, refusing to let the staff take her Fort Briggs issued coat and demanded to see her father right away.

Of course, they went to inform him right away of her sudden arrival, and that she wanted to see him. Phillip Armstrong, the ever elegant and proud head of the Armstrong family, was surprised to hear that his daughter even wanted to see him. He had been briefly informed by Alex that she had been transferred, but he still never expected her to come home, not after their rather large argument following the announcement of her transfer for Briggs. Still, he got ready, as did his lovely wife Josephine, and Catherine who wanted to come and see her older sister again as she had been near her mother when she heard the announcement. They all came into the dining room, seeing that Olivier was seated across from the head seat of the long table, which was where Phillip went to sit as he arrived. It was naturally his seat since it was where his 10-foot portrait was hung comfortably behind it, showing him in his Armstrong elegance in paintbrush form.

Once he was sitting in the velvet chair with polished mahogany handles, Olivier began to speak, with her arms crossed solidly in front of her chest, "Father, I demand you retire." Ever as cold as she had been when she was young, and straight to the point.

"Oh, Olivier…" He couldn't help sighing, having hoped that his daughter would have at least thought to greet him before getting into why she had come, "It's been years since we've last seen one another and that's all you have to say to me?"

"I'll head the family from now on." Olivier continued, "You should spend your final doddering, frail years in comfort."

"Thank you for your concern, but I plan to make Alex my successor," Phillip replied with a firm undertone to his words.

"You mean that sniveling jellyfish?" Olivier asked with clear disdain in her voice but chose to move on from the subject of her brother and get back to the task at hand, "Leave the family affairs to me. Why not take a long vacation in a foreign land? Alex as the head? Would you truly be able to relax, leaving things to him?" before she could get her response, there was a knock on the door from a late arrival to the party. The doors opened to reveal the only Armstrong son, who looked over at his eldest sister curiously as he entered the room.

"Olivier," he walked over to her, surprised by her presence, finding it somewhat ironic to see her here after just discussing her absence from the family with Amelia yesterday, "I didn't know you had planned a visit."

"Ohhh! Alex! Perfect timing!" Phillip excitedly stood up from his seat, struck with a great idea now that his son had come into the room to help him better deal with this situation than having it devolve into a potential argument. "Engage your sister in combat." Alex's eyes widened at his father's request, "The victor shall earn my title as head of the family," He turned to his eldest daughter, "Do you find this acceptable, Olivier?"

Olivier stood up from her chair, "Yes, I'd have it no other way." She said as she reached for the Armstrong family sword, pulling it from its place at her hilt and holding it at the ready. All the while, Alex was still a little confused.

"Olivier insists that I retire and take a sojourn in a foreign land," Phillip said to him, quickly explaining the situation that was between them.

"She what?!" He could hardly believe his father's words, though this was his eldest sister they were speaking about, it wasn't out of her realm, but still — to demand the seat that their father had chosen to bestow upon him and disrespect his choices…! He turned to his sister with a sharp glare, "How can you treat father with such insolence?! For shame! You've given me no choice!" Olivier readied her blade as Alex was quick to shed the white collared shirt he had worn into the room, letting it fly above him in the air as he donned his alchemic transmutation gloves, ready for a proper fight with her. Though he couldn't deny his nerves at the thought of fighting her, he had to defend the honor of his father and their family, "Understand, sister: I intend to use every ounce of my body and soul to fight you!" He planted his feet firmly to the ground as his glorious Armstrong muscles tensed under his skin.

"Don't patronize me, Alex." Olivier replied, holding her blade at the ready with a cold glare in her eyes, "Your bloated muscles are worthless without a spine!" With that, she charged into battle, her blade aimed to his abdomen which he readily dodged, dancing with her around one end of the dining room table as he tried to land a solid blow onto his sister, while she tried to cut him, both using the elegant and incredibly impervious techniques of Armstrong combat that had been passed down for generations.

As the fight began, Phillip saw them working and knew that the fight would not last long. As much as Alex is an excellent pugilist, and Olivier his equal with her blade, he was well aware that Olivier's fiery tenacity for victory and her determination might make her a tough opponent that could make the fight last for quite a long while, if her opponent intended to kill her, which he knew Alex didn't. Still, the idea that Olivier had presented of taking a long trip in a foreign land had sounded quite pleasant, and as he looked to his wife Josephine and met her eyes, he could see that she had felt the same way. A form of communication through eye contact that had been taught for generations through the Armstrong family lines.

"Shall we prepare for our respite?" He asked her, tilting to the side as a chair was thrown behind him to the wall, splintering apart in the heat of the battle with his two children.

"Yes," Josephine agreed, looking down at her youngest daughter, "Come along, Catherine. We'll make sure your sisters Strongine and Amue join us as well."

"Yes, Mother," Catherine replied dutifully as they left the room, still hearing the sounds of battle going on as they went to fetch their coats, their suitcases, and a few other things to travel. Strongine and Amue were invited and went to do the same, all while the house rumbled and shook with the vicious ongoing battle between the two siblings. Once they were all ready, they went to the safe hidden behind Phillip's portrait in the dining room to get the money for the trip, with Josephine throwing the stacks of money out into her large carpet bag as the fight raged on behind them.

"Get over here!" Olivier snarled out as she threw one of the last dining chairs at her brother, watching it break apart against his defending arms before she charged him again. He narrowly missed her sword, but not her boot as it drove into his gut.

"Oh, no!" He had the wind knocked out of him, but he managed to throw her back into the wall, starting to dance around the room again as the imported Aerugan carpet continued to be torn under their boots, not made for this kind of activity.

"So, which exotic locale might you suggest?" Phillip asked, knowing that any damage done to this room could be covered by the victor of the fight, so he wasn't concerned about the loss of his dining room chairs, or the torn carpet.

"Well, I'm intrigued to see what Xing is like," Josephine said, "I've heard that they have tantalizing cuisine there."

Behind them, Olivier managed to get Alex up into the air, flipping him over onto the dining room mahogany table and breaking it in half, the room shuddering from the landing with some of the plaster from the ceiling sprinkling down as dust onto the shoulders of Phillip's coat, which he promptly brushed away with his hands. "Then Xing it is, fine with you Catherine?" He asked his youngest, wondering what her thoughts were for travel.

"Sure, sounds exciting," She agreed, and he smiled at his sweet daughter as they began to file out of the room. As they rounded the corner, they felt the building shaking as a body was thrown against the walls, and then the doors burst open and Catherine could see Alex being flung out of the room into the next wall, leaving a very obvious crack in the plaster that revealed the wood that held up the house as he slid down to the floor. Olivier, not quite content with her throw, went to drag her brother back into the dining room by his singular curl of hair, which caused him to cry out in pain.

"No! Enough!" He pleaded with her, but Olivier didn't listen as she threw him back into the dining room and promptly jumped on him, getting him into a chokehold, pinning him to the ground while she held the blade of her sword to his throat. Catherine couldn't help but be a little worried about her brother, knowing that Olivier could be very determined where Alex could be a bit soft. He would never intentionally hurt a family member too badly, almost never against his sisters. She knew he had to be struggling, especially as she heard him begging her while trying to tap out and surrender, "Please…! Mercy!" He struggled to get out his words as his sister's grip only tightened.

"No take backs, Alex!" Olivier growled out.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" He asked as he still struggled in her chokehold.

"What tipped you off, moron?" Was her icy reply.

Catherine appeared around the corner, offering her brother the friendly smile that he had always told her lifted his spirits and inspired the strength in his muscles, "Try to hang in there, Alex!" She encouraged, before turning and leaving with their family. She knew that, even though Olivier could be quite vicious, she wouldn't actually kill her brother; not while on the Armstrong estate, Olivier had more respect for the family name than that.

As she made her way outside, she could see Strongine and Amue already prepared with their cars as Phillip and Josephine made their way over to meet with them and prepare for their trip together.

"What sort of souvenirs should we bring back for them?" Catherine asked as they casually walked past the fountain in the courtyard.

"Statues seem the most fitting, large and solid statues," Phillip replied happily.

"Well, in that case, I want a statue too, then," Catherine said, making the family laugh at her jovial behavior. The ground under them shook as Alex was forcefully thrown into the fountain, breaking apart the tiers that fell into the water as rubble.

"Would you mind if we stopped by Fredrick's home before we left? I'd like to tell him where his fiancée will be heading," Strongine asked as they loaded into the car.

"Oh, of course. We'll extend the invitation to him as well, I'm sure it will be an excellent opportunity to get to know him better." Phillip answered as he got into the driver's seat.

Olivier wasn't far behind her brother as he flailed around in the water, grabbing him by his boots and dragging him out to drag him back into the house to continue their fight as their family all got in their cars and drove away. This left her with one final blow, taking Alex's boot with both hands and throwing him harshly through the remains of the dining room to hit the fireplace, watching as the stone masonry cracked underneath his weight as he collapsed onto the floor with those bricks on top. As he groaned in pain, unable to move, Olivier knew that she had achieved an indisputable victory.

"And that settles that." She said, satisfied with her efforts as she sheathed her blade once more, making her way over to her brother once it was secured, seeing him slowly crawl out of the remains of the fireplace. She stopped just in front of him, giving him a moment to lift his head and meet her eyes, "I'm the rightful successor, the family belongs to me." She spoke with an air of finality and turned around to leave to make herself comfortable in another room of what was now her mansion.

Armstrong grunted as he pushed himself up, "Olivier…!" She stopped as she heard him call her name, "Why have you become so convivial with the senior officers? How can you? The senior staff is in league—"

"I can determine their complicity with my own eyes," She interrupted him.

"And what have your eyes seen?" Alex demanded seriously, "Have you exiled Mother and Father to a foreign land so they can't be taken hostage?"

Although he couldn't see it, Olivier's mouth curled up into a smirk. He was more aware than she gave him credit for, seeing exactly through her plan to become head of the family. Her father, a lover of luxurious and even hedonistic lifestyles of gluttony and frivolity, wouldn't be able to ignore a suggestion such as visiting an exotic country for a few weeks in comfort with his loving wife and adorable daughters. Still, even if she was impressed with her brother's insight, she couldn't let him in too much on her plans that she had for Central Command and the homunculi's forces, especially now that she had been introduced to the Immortal Legion that she had been promised by General Raven.

So, without replying at all to his question about their parents, she instead continued her walk out of the room, "Get out, loser. You'll stink up my mansion with your cowardice."

Alex struggled onto his feet but did manage somehow. He looked over at the door, seeing the twin maids Delilah and Dianna waiting there for him with sympathetic looks.

"You did your very best, Master Alex." Dianna praised him.

"Yes, your father would be so proud of your effort." Delilah agreed.

"Thank you, girls," He said, grunting as he stood up. It was interesting that Olivier chose to keep quiet after his questioning of her intentions behind her plans. It was true that she had an old grudge to settle with their father about the choice in the head of the family, but if that was really what mattered to her most, she wouldn't have run off to Briggs for so many years. She was protecting herself… protecting their family as best as she could, and to guarantee that no one had a hold over her or stop whatever plans she had in mind. It was incredibly clever and ingenious, using her old grudge as an excellent cover for her actions. "Would you mind fetching some of my things? It seems I'll be moving more permanently to the Central Headquarters barracks."

"Yes, Master Alex," The two maids replied before going to do just as he had asked.

---

"Are you sure this is the best idea?" Amelia asked, watching as Edward pulled out the container of red water, dragging it next to the tire. "You said it was basically a cheap imitation."

"It is, but this will be better than constantly having to stop and thin out the tire." Edward said, "I did the calculations last night, and we should have enough to get this to cover up what's there, and then we can keep going on to the safe house."

She leaned against the side of the car as she watched him kneel down by the tire. They had thankfully spent the night in the inn, though now they were a bit low on money and would need to look for other resources later. "Alright, I trust you." She said, watching as he opened up the container. It wasn't too long afterward that a very acrid smell hit Amelia's nose and she immediately covered her nose and mouth with her hand, stepping back from the car, "Ugh, what is that?"

"That's the red water, it's not exactly a nice smell, considering it's made with some pretty toxic chemicals," Edward said with a wry chuckle before clapping his hands together and pressing them to the tire. Amelia watched as the transmutation lit up around the rubber and the container of red water, watching as the energy affected the entire tire, and when he had pulled away and the light faded, she saw a perfectly normal tire, though… Edward had taken the liberty of changing the hubcap to something a bit less… circular.

"Ed, what is that?" She asked, looking at the strange face he had put on the metal.

"I thought our car could use a little spiffing up," Edward said with a grin, only to be met with a stone-faced look of disappointment from Amelia.

"Change it back, we can't have too many identifying features on our car." Edward sighed like a grumpy child but did as she suggested and changed it back. She looked over at the container for the red water, planning on putting what was left in the car, and she was surprised to see how little was actually left of it.

"Did you use the red water to change the hubcap, too?" She asked.

"No, I used all of that just for the tire," Edward replied as she picked it up.

"But… there's not even a spoonful left." The container had once been filled with a solid liter of red water with the weight to match, now it was as light as anything, with only a little droplet of the red liquid still inside.

"I didn't say it was a potent amplifier," Edward chuckled as he stood up, dusting off his knees from the gravel, "But now our car is good to go, and that automail kid didn't find anything wrong with the engine, so now we should be able to head straight to Central without any problems."

---

This was exactly what they did, with Edward directing them down certain roads, and as night came they would still drive, though Darius and Heinkel would take shifts driving since Amelia and Edward didn't know how (Amelia knew how to drive an automatic car, but when they asked her what that was, she realized it was a kind of car that hadn't been invented yet, so she had to let it drop). It took them a day and a half to reach the safe house, parking the car a good distance away, and covering it with tree branches as camouflage as they began to approach it in the darkness of night. They couldn't have arrived at a better time, considering people were much less likely to question seeing them there, even if there wasn't anyone around to see.

"Where are we?" Darius asked as they made their way up to the front of the house. It was still heavily damaged from their last visit, a gaping hole in the side from when Gluttony began to swallow all the wood and walls in an attempt to kill Mustang, with boards and walls collapsed around it. The outside still had plenty of weeds, and the building was completely dark.

"We've used this place as a hideout before," Edward said.

"And you're positive that your brother's here?" Heinkel asked.

"Oh, yeah," Edward replied with a confident grin, "I know Al better than he knows himself. This is the only place he would be."

"But it's totally dark inside." Amelia couldn't help commenting, thinking this might not have been the best idea to trust Edward with directions.

"Of course it is, if the lights were on, people would be asking all kinds of questions." Edward replied as if it was an obvious choice, starting to walk towards the house, "Come on, I'm sure he's inside." The other three followed him, stepping onto the creaking wood floors as they all looked around the room for any signs of life, "Al?" Edward gently called into the darkness as Darius pulled up the lantern they had brought with them, lighting it to give them an easier time seeing, "Al, are you here?"

As Darius lit the lantern and revealed that the insides were not only coated in dust and dirt, but their footprints were the only impressions that had been made in that dust and dirt in what must have been weeks… well, they came to a very quick and obvious conclusion about what happened, as did Edward who grimaced a little as he realized his mistake.

"Hey, there's nobody here!" Darius said, bringing his hand down to the back of Edward's head, making him jolt forward, "Yeah, you really know your brother."

"We busted our tails for hundreds of miles for an empty house?" Heinkel couldn't help his own complaints while Edward rubbed at the spot where he had been hit.

"Well… I'm sure we can at least use this place as a shelter for the night?" Amelia tried to offer to make the situation a little better, but that didn't seem to be a welcome idea.

Heinkel turned, sniffing the air for a moment, his chimera DNA giving him a heightened sense of smell that allowed him to find a new presence making its way toward them. He didn't hesitate to turn into a corner of the house, pulling his gun and pointing it at the door, gesturing silently that the others join him and be quiet. Darius immediately doused the lantern and Edward pulled Amelia with him to the wall, crouching down as they waited in the darkness. After a moment, they could hear footsteps approaching the house. Edward was very careful, slowly poking his head through the doorway to see who it was. Maybe he was right, and Alphonse was here? But if that were the case, he would hear his armor, and these were just normal footsteps…

As the figure came closer, he let out a quiet gasp as he recognized it, watching as the body approached the front entrance, stopping for only a moment before collapsing onto his knees and hitting the floor face first.

Amelia instantly recognized the dark-haired ponytail on the back of the head and the ouroboros tattoo on his left hand. "Is that Ling?" She couldn't help asking aloud.

"Yeah… or, no, it's Greed." Edward corrected himself as he looked over the collapsed body of the homunculus, wondering what the hell had happened. Before he could even examine him or ask him, he heard a sudden grumbling from his stomach that indicated a very strong hunger.

"Hungry… need food…" The weak voice came out from the body before them. Edward let out a small sigh of relief, smiling a little.

"Heh. No, it's Ling…" He looked over at Heinkel, "Hey, go and get our rations from the car. This guy's a friend."

"You sure?" Darius asked as he reached to re-light the lantern.

"Yeah, definitely. He has this problem with collapsing after not eating enough, so we need to get him something to chow on." Heinkel shrugged in a typical 'might as well' gesture and went to rush over to the car while Amelia came over to him.

"That's right, you told me how you have a really fast metabolism, didn't you?" She said as she helped him roll over onto his back, hearing him let out a weak chuckle.

"Good to… see you…" he said weakly, smiling at her and Edward, who smiled back.

"Good to see you, too, Ling." Darius's lantern helped give them the light to see as Edward and Amelia helped Ling to sit up by the wall instead of laying on the ground like he had been.

"Even with your body like that, you should probably be more careful," Amelia said as she helped straighten out the coat he was wearing. He still wore Greed's clothes, though he seemed perfectly normal otherwise, "I can't have my future husband collapsing on me all the time, right?" She joked, eliciting a chuckle from him, and a rather shocked reaction from Edward.

"Future husband?!"

"Huh?" Amelia looked over at him.

"How is Ling your future husband?!" He demanded, pointing at the weak and weary face of their mutual friend.

"Oh… did I not mention that he proposed when we were waiting for Gluttony?" She supposed it had slipped her mind among… well, literally everything else that happened that day.

"No! You didn't mention that at all!" Edward snapped as Heinkel returned with the bag of rations.

"Here, I grabbed the whole thing." Edward took the offered bag, angrily grabbing a can and pushing the bag in front of Ling as he handed him an unopened can of a kind of ready-to-eat meal that was sold to officers.

"There, open it yourself," He said, glowering at the prince. Ling reached for it, trying unsuccessfully to open the can, and Amelia sighed.

"Ed, come on, he's hardly in a shape to do this himself." She said, taking it from Ling and opening it before handing it back to him and taking a spoonful to feed him. This only worsened Edward's scowl as he watched her feed him a spoonful by hand, which he slowly chewed and swallowed down. Once that was done, he quickly swiped the spoon and the can from her, stuffing his face with it and emptying it in a matter of seconds before moving onto the next can and starting to quickly empty it. And then another, and another, and another… and soon enough, the bag was almost completely empty. Scattered ready-to-eat meal cans and packages were around on the floor, and everyone had been shocked to watch this one person quickly empty out their food meant for 4 people.

When it was finally done, he let out a jovial laugh as he put down the last can. "Oh, well that did the trick!" He said, smiling happily at his friends, "Thanks, Edward! You're too kind."

"It's amazing that you're not a giant fat ass," Edward replied snidely.

"Seriously, how did you eat all of that so fast without getting sick?" Amelia couldn't help asking as she looked over the remains of their food.

"He ate all of our rations," Darius said, shaking the bag that had once held them, now they had to spend what little money they had left on replenishing it much sooner than they originally planned.

Ling looked over at the two chimeras, "Are you gonna introduce me to your pals?"

"Oh, that's Mr. Gorilla—" Edward was quickly interrupted.

"My name's Darius!"

"And I'm Heinkel. We're ex-military, but we wound up getting stuck working with these kids somehow."

"Now what's this guy's story?" Darius asked, pointing to Ling. He looked over at Amelia, "Is he really the guy you're engaged to?"

"Oh, no, not really!" Amelia quickly said, waving her hands back and forth as if to wave away the idea, "He proposed to me kind of as a joke."

"That offer was completely serious," Ling said, looking over at her, "You said you wouldn't do it for a couple more years though, right?" He smiled, "And since you said I'm your future husband, that means you'll marry me in that time, right? Become my queen?"

"Now just hold on a damn second!" Edward quickly butted in, "That doesn't mean that she's definitely going to marry you! A lot can happen in a few years!"

"I can defend myself on this stuff, Ed. I don't need you to do it for me." Amelia said, frowning.

"Hey!" Darius quickly stopped their bickering before it could turn into an argument, "I never got an answer to my question. Who is this guy?" He pointed at Ling again.

"Uh…" Amelia wasn't sure how to answer, knowing the truth would immediately label him as an enemy to the two chimeras.

"Well, let's see…" Edward put his hand on the back of his head, trying to think of a way to answer it, "It's really kind of complicated…"

"I'm a homunculus," Ling answered right away, making Edward and Amelia look back at him, shocked that he would give it away when they had been trying to hide it.

"Can you try to be more discreet?!" He hissed out in a whisper while Heinkel and Darius only shared a confused glance.

"Seriously?" Darius asked.

"It's a really long and complicated story we can tell you later, but I swear he's our friend," Amelia said, trying to stick up for him so the two chimeras didn't think to attack him in his state.

"And what are you doing here?" Edward asked Ling, "I thought you'd be in Central."

"Well… to put it lightly, Greed had a falling out with the other homunculi," Ling answered, "So, I took advantage of his confusion and managed to regain control of my body." His shoulders tensed as his brow furrowed in concentration, "I had to get out of Central… and needed some place close by to hide so… I…!" He grunted as his body started to shake, sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"Ling?" Amelia looked over at him worriedly.

"What's the matter?" Edward asked.

"It's Greed…!" Ling muttered out, bringing his forehead into his hand as he tried to concentrate, "He's starting to fight back…!"

"Hey!" Edward instantly brought his fist down on the back of Ling's head, hitting it over and over again with taps that were light enough to not cause any damage, but hard enough to be annoying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Fight him back, you idiot! Don't let him overpower you!"

Ling reached up and caught his forearm with both hands to make him stop, "Jeez…" He lifted his head, looking up at Edward, "Listen! That guy beneath Central, the one that they call their father… He's gonna open the portal on "The Day of Reckoning." Edward and Amelia's eyes widened at this news, "I could be wrong about this… but I think you and Al should jump in when he does. It's the best chance you have to get your bodies back." Edward let out a small gasp, they had no idea he was planning on opening the portal, and while this was probably a good opportunity for Edward and Alphonse to get their bodies back to normal, something still stuck out to the two alchemists.

"Wait a minute, that makes sense and everything but there's a toll that must be paid to even open the portal," Edward said, already a little worried about what that toll had to be. Still, with what they knew about him, it wasn't hard to guess what would be the toll. Father was planning on turning the entire nation of Amestris into a Philosopher's Stone, that would be used to open it… but at the same time, what toll could possibly be so high that he would need a stone that large?

"Why would he be opening the portal? His alchemical skill is already higher than ours. I doubt there's much more he could want to learn to get better at it." Amelia couldn't help asking.

"This 'day of reckoning' do you know the exact day he's gonna open it?" Edward asked.

"It's happening…!" Ling grunted, his hand going to his face again as he tried to concentrate, but he was starting to fight a losing battle, and it was showing.

"Ling, come on!" Edward tried to encourage him to keep fighting, he needed this information!

"Damn it… I can't hold him much longer…!" Ling said, his entire body trembling with the effort, his eyes showing a dark purple color, indicating his non-human state… or more likely Greed's control. He looked up at Edward determinedly, "The message… You got it to Lan Fan, right? You gave her the message?"

"Message?" Edward tried to remember, thinking back and recalling the time Greed gave them a message written in Xingese to be given to Lan Fan, "Al gave it to her. And she's doing alright. I don't know where she is, but she's safe."

A relieved smile crossed Ling's face, "Thank you, Ed… that's good to hear… Urgh!" He grabbed at his face again, his entire body shaking and sweating.

"Ling! Come on, you've got this!" Amelia tried to cheer him on, wishing there was a way she could help in the fight, but it didn't seem likely.

"I'm sorry…" He was struggling to get the words out at all, "That's it for me… I'm gone." His body hunched forward, and Edward and Amelia leaned back, fearing the worst. They waited with bated breath for a few long seconds before his head lifted up again, revealing a sharp gaze and a deep scowl.

"Damn… pain in the ass prince." A new voice came from his body, deeper and with a bit more attitude than Ling had, showing Greed had returned, "He needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut."

"Is that you, Greed?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, what tipped ya off?" He sarcastically replied in return. Once it was confirmed, however, Heinkel quickly grabbed his gun and pointed it at the homunculus. He saw it and scoffed, "Don't bother," He stood up, casually sticking his hands into his pants pockets. "You can't even scratch me with that thing." He looked over the group once more before starting to walk past Heinkel and towards the door, "Well, see ya later."

"Hey!" Edward called out to him, quickly pushing himself to his feet, Amelia following suit, "Aren't you gonna try to capture us?" It did seem out of character for a homunculus not to do that duty, considering they were probably looking for the two of them.

"Huh?" Greed looked back at Edward over his shoulder, "Were you even listening to anything the prince told you? I'm working on my solo career now. All these memories came flooding back and I kind of went nuts and attacked Bradley. Who knows what they'd do to me if I go crawling back? And I don't really work well with others, so it's probably for the best, and that's that." He turned around to walk out again, planning on going on his own path this time.

"Why don't you team up with us?" Edward asked, the question stopping Greed in his tracks mid-step, something Amelia noticed instantly, "You've got nowhere to go, why not come with us?"

Greed turned around to Edward, and Amelia saw the look on his face. His eyes were wide, and she could see that desire there, a longing for the idea of being a part of something, being part of a community. But it was only there for a second before Greed's shoulders started to shake with his laughter, "Team up with you? You want me to follow you? Haha…! Thanks for the laugh." He lifted his head up with a confident smirk, "Up yours, kid! This world is my possession, not yours. Now, it's a different story if you wanna follow me. You're welcome to join my team." He laughed again, starting to turn around and continue his way out, "Later." and he walked off into the darkness, leaving the four of them behind in the safe house.

"You really thought he would join up with you?" Darius asked, "I agree it would be nice to have a homunculus on the team, but I don't think he'd ever."

Edward's shoulders slumped, clearly not pleased about the sudden rejection, "No, he wanted to." Amelia spoke up, getting their attention. Edward turned to look at her and she met his eyes, "I saw it in his face, the minute you asked he did want to, but… I think he can't agree to that." She glanced over at where he left, "He says he's the incarnation of greed, but he's got some pride to him, too. I think that might have been the thing that was stopping him from saying yes. He's too proud to be a follower, he has to be a leader." She let out a sigh, crossing her arms, "But maybe that's for the best like he said? It's not like he would cooperate with us on taking down his creator, even if they had a falling out."

Edward took all of this into consideration, thinking over their options while Heinkel and Darius looked over at the girl, "How could you tell all that just by looking at him?" Heinkel couldn't help asking.

She shrugged in response, "Reading people is kind of a thing I can do? It, uh, comes with a certain background." She crossed her arms as she tried to think, "So… I guess it's back to square one, then. We still need to come up with some kind of plan to beat Father, and somehow meet back up with Alphonse…"

"I've got a better idea," Edward said, turning and running out of the safehouse. Amelia wasn't sure why he was running, but she quickly followed behind him.

"Hey! Where are you going?" She called after him.

Behind her, Heinkel and Darius glanced over at where the kids were running, and then at each other, shrugged, and started running behind Amelia to catch up to Edward.

Soon enough, she could see that he was running to catch up to Greed, who was talking to himself as he looked up at the night sky, or more likely talking to Ling.

"Hey, Ling! Wait up!" Edward called to him, getting his attention as he scowled at Edward.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm Greed, not Ling." He corrected with a long-weary irritation in his voice as Edward stopped in front of him, with Amelia and the chimeras just behind him.

"It's too difficult to keep track of! I'll just call you GreeLing from now on." Edward said, immediately posing a solution that instantly offended Greed, grimacing at first at the name, and then quickly scowling.

"No! You will not—!"

"Listen to me, GreeLing: I'll follow you." Edward interrupted him, shocking the homunculus into silence. "I've thought about it and I've decided to join your team after all."

"Uh, this is not the plan?" Amelia pointedly spoke to Edward, wondering what exactly he was thinking.

"It's fine," Edward reassured her, "This is the new plan." He turned back to Greed, "So, that gives you a couple of powerful alchemists on your team with me and Amelia, and since these guys seem to follow me everywhere, you've got two chimeras on your team as well." He said, pointing his thumb at Heinkel and Darius, who immediately decided to take charge of the situation, grabbing Edward by the shoulders and yanking him back as they started to rough him up, Amelia watching with a mixture of shock, concern, and wry resignation on the side with Greed.

"Who do you think you are?! You don't get to make that call!" Darius demanded as he smacked Edward around.

"Nobody said you were our boss, pipsqueak! You little runt!" Heinkel exclaimed as he had his own turn giving Edward a few punches that left him flat on his stomach on the ground, with plenty of shoe prints on his coat from the two men stomping down on him in their own anger at having him give orders like that. Greed just watched, confused, and still shocked at the sight of the entire display, until Heinkel and Darius had finished.

Edward grunted as he lifted himself up on his elbows on the ground, "I realized something… I've been a follower ever since I became a dog of the military. I lost my pride a while back." He pushed himself to stand up, dusting off his clothes of the dirt that had clung to it after his rough fall to the ground, "So, I'm already used to rolling over on command, and besides," He lifted his head up to look at Greed with a determined smirk, "There's too much at stake. I can't let any information you've got slip through the cracks. Heh, I really can't let my ego get in the way."

Greed's eyes widened slightly as he heard him speak, remembering his past self and how he commented on how Edward's rashness and ego was going to keep him from getting the valuable information he had when he had kidnapped Alphonse. It seems he had learned a lot since that time, and the homunculus grinned, before bursting into laughter. What a sudden change of events this was! And here he had just been "pouting" (the prince's words, not his) about that entire exchange of Edward offering to have him join their team, and here he was instead, bargaining to try and be a part of his team. It was an offer he had made on a whim, but it was paying off!

"Alright, kid!" He said, still smiling, "But working for me means you have to live in the shadows. I don't want to hear any regrets."

"Give me a break," Edward mirrored his grin right back at him, "I've already got a million regrets, what's one more?"

"A million and one." Heinkel and Darius said at the same time, and Amelia just brought her hands up to her face.

"Edward, no. That is not how you respond to that…" She sighed into her palms, so disappointed in him. How was she crushing on this loser again?

"Good, then it's settled." Greed said, sounding very pleased as he went over to the two chimeras. "So, then you guys are working for me, too."

"Doesn't seem like we have much choice," Heinkel replied with a bit of resignation, accepting this situation. It's not like he had anywhere to go back to, so he may as well go forward here.

"I don't care who I follow as long as they're feeding me," Darius said, a hand going to his stomach as he recalled the fact that they were now out of rations because of Ling.

"So, what kind of chimeras are you?" Greed asked.

"I'm part gorilla," Darius answered.

"I'm part lion," Heinkel answered.

"Heh, that's pretty cool."

As the three of them continued to chat a little about their abilities, Amelia glanced over at Edward as he seemed to be distracted from the conversation, seeing him reach into his pocket, and pull out Winry's earrings that he had been holding onto since they were separated at Briggs. Instantly, her chest tightened a little, and she had to look away. With things as they are, they might not see Winry or Alphonse for a long time now… but that didn't mean he wasn't planning on waiting for her. She had to get rid of this crush at some point, it was just going to get in the way. Edward has his goals, and she had her own… maybe it was better that she found her way out and got back home? The idea had slowly been losing its appeal the longer she had been here, but if it was a way to get out of this whole crush situation and get back to safety and comfort…

Greed turned to Amelia, "And you're an alchemist, too, huh?" She was pulled out of her thoughts as he directed his question to her.

"That's right." She nodded, seeing a grin spread over Greed's face.

"And apparently, you're the prince's little bride-to-be? A little princess?"

She crossed her arms, "Not exactly. Ling's proposal was purely political, and I said I wouldn't turn him down, but I didn't exactly say yes either."

"Oh? Holding out until something better comes along?" Greed leaned a little closer and she frowned, stepping back as she looked up at him, "You know, you probably couldn't do much better than a homunculus, I could protect you from just about every kind of danger."

"Ugh, as if I'd ever." Her nose scrunched up in disgust.

"What? Oh, come on, I'm in the body of the guy who proposed to you, I'm not good-looking enough for you?"

"It's not about looks, it's about personality. And where Ling is kind of nice, you're basically the incarnation of a garbage can."

Greed let out a barking laugh at her response, "Oh, I like you, little princess! Ha, ha, ha!"

"Please don't call me that."

His grin widened, "Now I'm definitely going to call you that, just to make you mad." She scowled up at him, and he mockingly made the same face.

"Asshole,"

"I like 'em fiery." He said with a wink, and her nose scrunched up in disgust again.

"Alright, you guys!" Greed spoke up a little louder, turning to everyone as he started to continue down the path he had been walking, "I've got quite a few plans to get through, and I'm sure you all can help me out. So, let's get walking and talking!" He turned around, making the gesture that they all follow him into the night, and they all began to file after him. This plan wasn't exactly the best plan to Amelia's eyes, but at least it was a plan… so she could at least give Edward credit for that much.