Armstrong ends up carrying both of us to the Train, Ed demanding to know why and where and me complaining about the lack of food.
"But whyyyyy can't we stop and get something to eaaaatttt!" I whine, allowing my head to rock back and forth between my shoulders. "We mustn't miss our train!" Armstrong declares, marching up to the station. Ed grumbles, his arms and legs dangling from over Armstrong's other shoulder. I reach over and poke his cheek. "Edddd~." "What do you want." he grumbles, glaring at me out of the corner of his eye. I sigh and allow my legs and arms to go limp.
"I'm booorrreeeeddddd."
"A minute ago, you were hungry!"
"Well, now I'm hungry AND bored!"
Ed groans and slaps the heel of his palm to his forehead. Just then, Armstrong puts us both down and ushers us towards a waiting train. Ed grumbles and allows Armstrong to push him while I grumble and limply trudge aboard.
We sit down, me and Ed squashed in one seat with Armstrong sitting behind us like some kinda titanic guardian.
We rode the train for a few hours. At some point, I convinced Ed to play rock paper scissors again. Of course, I was winning by several rounds by the time the train pulled into Resembool station.
"You're cheating and I know it!" Ed continues ranting, throwing his arms up as I sigh and shake my head, smiling at the fool's antics. "I'm gonna catch you cheating eventually!" Ed shouts. I look over my shoulder, grinning. "Ed, no matter how many times you say it." I spin on my heel and flick him in the nose. He yelps and hops back a step, clutching his nose with wide eyes. "It won't become true."
I spin back on my heel and follow Armstrong to where Breda is leaning on a small car. 'How the hell are we all gonna fit in that?' "Major Armstrong, Ms. Green. I see you remembered to bring the Shrimp." Breda says, sending Ed into a fit. I sigh and grab his arm, bending it behind his head, making him yelp and cutting his tirade short. "For the love of God Ed, you're almost average height now, so chill the fuck out, cause I am not above knocking you out so we can get wherever we're going in peace."
Several moments later, we're all packed into the car, which, as I suspected, is a tight fit. At least, for me and Ed, who are squashed in the back while Breda is trying to keep Armstrong from over taking the driver's seat.
I squirm in my seat, wiggling my arms about. Ed holds up his arms to block my apparent flailing. "Would you just sit still?!" he demands. "Hang on!" I growl, swinging my legs up to rest across his lap. "There." I lean my back against the door and cross my arms. "Now I can feel my god damned legs." I glance up only to hold back a fit of laughter. Ed's face is bright red as he presses his back as far into the seat as he can. "C-can you-" "Nope!" I laugh at him struggling not to lose his cool.
After what feels like an hour, we arrive in the actual town of Risembool and drive to a small building that looks almost less noticeable than the others. Ed, being the only one who has absolutely no clue what's going on, follows along with a look close to the one the sheep we saw while driving had. I mean, I know what's going to happen to an extent, but I'm not going to be that much help if he asks.
Breda motions us inside where a vaguely Chinese looking man, who I assume is actually Xingese, is sitting at one of the various tables, apparently waiting for us. I glance back to see Ed look at the man with a slightly confused look. Something swirls in my stomach as I realize that he's almost adorable with that look. Scratch that, he is actually very adorable with that look.
"Hello." says the man, raising a hand in greeting. "How are you?" "This is Mr. Han,the departure coordinator." Breda informs us. "Nice to meet you." says Mr. Han offering his hand to me and then Ed. I smile and nod, shaking his hand. "It's very nice to meet you as well." I say. Ed reluctantly shakes Mr. Han's hand. "Uhm, sure…" Mr. Han glances Ed up and down. "Foo has told me all about you." "Foo? You mean that old guy?" I frown and poke Ed's shoulder. "You could be a bit more respectful. Foo could whoop your sorry ass to Kingdom Come and back if he wanted." Ed shoots a glare at me, his upper lip twitching a bit. "Shaddap!" he snaps.
"Let's get down to business." says Breda and I can't help but start to hum out that song from Mulan. "About the border crossing…" "Border crossing?" Ed butts in. "But I didn't bring my passport!" Breda keeps his back to us, still facing Mr. Han. "Why the hell do you even have a passport?" I ask, frowning deeply. "Don't be naive." Breda says and I almost flip out. "If you use a passport, they can track you down."
"But that's illega-" Armstrong's hand smacks down on Ed's face, cutting off what he was about to say.
The looks on their faces must have answered his question, because Ed pushes Armstrong's hand away. "I can't believe it!" He drops into a seat across from Mr. Han and the others. "Abduction, scheming, illegal border crossings…" Ed frowns. "I don't know what you're getting me into, but it better not be something dumb. So.." He smirks. "Where are we going?"
"To the East!" says Breda.
-sometime later-
"So… So hot…" Ed complains from the horse he's riding on. "Shadd..up" I wheeze, laying on my belly on the back of the horse I'm riding on. "Mr.. Haaan." I call. He looks over his shoulder. "Yes?" "Shouldn't… shouldn't we be riding CAMELS?!" He shrugs. I groan and grope the side of my saddle, finally grabbing my canteen and bringing it up for a sip as Ed starts complaining about how you can probably cook an egg on him from the heat of his automail. "Oh, chill out...you big..baby…" I swirl my wrist and pull up the remains of my water and turn it into a tiny cloud above my head, thankfully shading my head from this killer heat.
"How come you get a tiny cloud?!" Ed demands with a surprising amount of energy. "Oh shut UP!" I shout and toss my canteen at him. He yelps and crashes off his horse, into the sand. I chuckle weakly before floping my forehead against the horse's warm tan fur. "So...tired…" I grumble. Just before I faint of this incredibly killer heat, I hear Mr. Han's fading voice announcing something.
I was only faintly aware of being pushed and then the .2 seconds of falling before I hit ice cold water.
With a loud squeal, I jump out of the water and swing my arms around, sending water swirling away and….. I think I hit someone.
I wipe water out of my eyes and flick it away, blinking in confusion before looking around. Instead of just straight sand and nothingness, I'm standing in the middle of some kinda well in the remains of some desert city or something.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LISA!" I turn to see Ed clutching his face, a large red handprint becoming evident. I feel my own face becoming slightly red, having nothing to do with smacking.
Ed's hair is dripping wet and his shirt is no where to be seen, leaving his incredibly toned chest for all to see. It doesn't exactly help my case any on the fact that he's already incredibly cute, but he's also almost as muscular as some of the Z-fighters. Barely holding in a squeak, I drop back into the water, hoping to God no one saw the blush on my face.
From my spot under water, I can hear them all talking. I bend a small bubble of air around my head as I lay on my side, listening to the muffled noises above.
Another upside to having my abilities: I can stay underwater for as long as I like without having to come up for air.
A muffled sound from above reaches my ears as a shadow appears in the water. I glance up to see a large figure before a hand reaches down and pulls my to the surface.
"-thought you'd drowned down there!" cries Armstrong as he pulls me into a bone-crushing hug. "Oh how heart-breaking it would be to have lost such a young soul so soon!" I yelp and swing my free arm about. "EDWARD! DO SOMETHING!" I shout, squirming helplessly in the large man's hold. Ed scoffs, smirking. "I'm not the one with the fancy super powers."
"WHEN I GET LOOSE, I'M GONNA STRANGLE YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?! STRANGLE YOU!" I scream.
-5 minutes later-
Grumbling, I bend back and forth, trying to put some feeling back into my hip and rib area. Ed and Foo are going off about old fairy tales about how alchemy came to each country, yadda yadda yadda, other things I could care less about and such. "Can we pleeeease get a move on?" I complain. "The more we move, the better I feel about being in the middle of effing no where." Ed shoots me a look as Foo nods. "Yes, quite."
As we walk, Foo and Armstrong talk about how incredible these old ruins are. I glance around, taking in the crumbling buildings. "I'm getting a weird vibe from this place." I mutter. Foo glances at me over his shoulder. "Describe this… "vibe" you are feeling." I frown, feeling my nose scrunch up a bit. "It..it feels like… like death...and...and screams...I-I..I can hear the screams…" I feel my voice drop in volume as I describe the assault on my senses. "I can smell something.. rotting and… there's...something cold about this place… it's...old but...it's still...alive." I shudder, the feather soft touch of lives ended running along my spine and the very hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Foo's eyebrows shoot up. "That is… I do not sense anything of the sort." I smile weakly. "I tend to see and feel things others don't. Been doing it for years."
His ever present frown doesn't vanish but he nods and his eyes avert to some place over my shoulder. "What are you doing?" he calls. I spin around to see Ed staring up at some huge transmutation circle looking thing which strangely has the picture from the Amestrian State flag, the one with the chimera lion-y thing. "The fuck is that thing?" I mumble under my breath, not liking the chills running loose on my back. This feels too much like being in a graveyard.
Ed scurries over to the rest of us, following behind Foo and I, with Armstrong and Breda bringing up the rear as Foo leads us through the maze-like remains of the old city. "Now I really wish I'd finished the god damned series so I knew what happened to this place." Like any other fan or tumblr user, I knew Ed and Winry got together in the end, the Elrics went around the world and a few other big details but the others things, like Hohenheim's immortality and the apparent murder of each of the remaining Homunculi in turn was not something I knew. 'Then what will happen to Lillian? Will I have to... ' I shake the thought away as a familiar voice breaks the silence of these dead ruins.
"Edward?!"
Ed looks up with wide eyes and a gasp as he sets eyes on the familiar face. "Damn that Colonel… !" Ed grins and I can't help but grin too. "Ross!" I shout, beating Armstrong to hug her. Breda's voice carries as I release Ross who yelps and dashes away from Armstrong, doing her best to avoid being crushed by the emotional man.
A few minutes of Armstrong trying to hug Ross later, we're all sitting in a circle on some pieces of rubble with Brda and Ross explaining what happened the night of Ross' apparent "death".
"Now that everyone's caught up," says Breda. "the whole point in bringing the big guy here was for us to exchange information." Breda hands Armstrong a notebook and he draws each depending on their description from each person.
"So the busty one's Lust." says Breda.
"And this Envy brought Edward to us after the 5th lab incident." Ross taps her chin.
"And the spiky haired guy's Greed." I join in. "And the chubby one who follows Lust around is called Gluttony. There's a few other, but we haven't seen them yet."
"Do these Homunculi really exist?" asks Armstrong.
"I understand that way of thinking…" Ed mutters.
"If Greed and his gang were all killed in Dublith, it might be worth it to go see Doctor Marcoh again." Breda says to Ed, who nods.
"The more I think about all this…" Ross rubs her chin nervously.
"The more I realize I have nothing to do with any of this! How did I get mixed up in all of this at all?!"
"You just have bad luck." Foo and I say as I pat her shoulder.
"Though I must ask." says Breda. "Did you kill Brigadier General Hughes?" "OF COURSE NOT!" Ross shouts, glaring at him. Breda sighs. "That so? Well, that's good." He pulls a rather large pistol out. "Then I won't have to use this." He glances at each of us as he explains. "In the event that it turned out that the 2nd Lt. had killed the Commodore, I had orders from the Colonel to shoot her after getting all the information I could." I yelp, feeling sweat form on my neck and face. "Aw shit!" I hiss, smacking my hands to either side of my head. Ed frowns confusedly at me. "Uhm.. Lisa? Are you alright?" I grit my teeth and point at the others. "I may have told you and Al and Win, but I never told them!" He yelps and glances around. "Then why don't you tell them now?!"
"Tell us what?" asks Ross. I glance up, feeling the blood rush to my face. "Armstrong, Breda, if either of you intend to tell Mustang what I say, then COVER YOUR FUCKING EARS!" Breda claps his hands over his ears, frowning. Armstrong frowns. "Depending on the inform-" "JUST COVER YOUR GOD DAMNED EARS!" I rage. Armstrong plugs both of his ears as I immediately turn to Ross. "Mr-er, Lt…. Fucking shit… Look! Maes Hughes isn't dead!" Ross' eyes widen. "Wh-wha-!" "Like how Mustang faked your's, I….may or…" I growl and smack a hand to my knee, tilting my head down and squeeze my eyes shut. "I faked Maes' death by making a fake body and then sending him and his family away and we can't tell Mustang cause then he'll flip out and it's super important that he not know 'cause he's supposed to kill Lust and Envy trying to find out about how it happened!" I say as fast as I can, coming out rather loudly, before smacking my hands over my face and slamming my head onto my knees.
"She did what?!"
"How the hell?!"
"Is that even possible?!"
"We all saw the body! There's no way that was a fake!"
"But why would she lie?!"
The others all shout out questions at me, demanding answers. I whimper, squeezing my eyes shut, sliding my hands to cover my ears. My chest clenches up as thoughts of having to explain this same thing to others. I'm terrible at lying! And having to admit to lying will kill me! Figuratively AND literally!
"Give her a break!"
I freeze up at the words, stopping everyone else cold. I slowly look up to see Ed standing up, one arm swung to the side with his back to me. "Sure she's a pain in the ass, but she saved Maes' life, which is more than any of us could have done! Hell, she's saved my life when I first met her!" "Ed, calm down." Ross says, motioning for him to sit back down. "No one is mad." "Sure as hell doesn't sound like it to me!" Ed shouts. "Ed, we're all just unsure of how to feel about all of this." says Ross. Breda nods, leaning one arm on his knee. "Especially if we can't tell the Colonel about this."
'I want to get away.' The moment the thought crosses my mind, I'm on my feet and darting away, listening to everyone yell after me, calling for me to come back. I can feel hot tears streaming down my face as I run. I squeeze my eyes shut and rub one arm across my face-
*WHAM*
I hold back a pained scream as I fall onto my butt, glaring at the large crumbling pillar I'd run into. I choke back a sob. 'I will NOT break down right now! I-I just… I need time to think! I need some time alone!' Not caring about the fact that I'd already prohibited myself from flying at all, I fly to the top of the decaying pillar and sit, curling into myself as much as possible. I want nothing to do with anything for the time being.
I just want to be alone with my thoughts.
'Mr. and Mrs. Hughes and Elysia are wonderful people and I'm so happy I could keep them all together but… everyone except for those I know will hold their secret from even Mustang must believe Maes to be dead.. and I hate having to hurt people like that, making them mourn for someone not dead...I wish I could have saved Nina and Alexander as well. They were both so innocent and their lives were precious, especially Ed and Al.' I huff, wiping away my drying tears. 'I guess Truth knew I would save them so he made sure I wouldn't have the chance.' I chuckle bitterly. 'I could have sent them to the Island and they could have been safe there, but I've been cut off from there so I guess I couldn't have saved them like I did with Hughes, not that I would have needed to… maybe… we could've brought them along, like someone once suggested to be an AU on Tumblr…' I chuckle at the thought. 'A boy with automail, a suit of armor, a demigod, and a chimera or a little girl and her dog… all depending on whether we got there in time. Heh. Now that would've been a sight… I hope there's at least one world that I got to save her...' I sigh and stretch my legs out allowing them to dangle over the edge of the pillar. 'I wonder if I'll ever run into a different version of myself who's seen different worlds than me or had different experiences… that'd be something… maybe I'll ask the Big Guy if he'll let me once I'm done here….' My smile falters and I grumble. "If I ever figure out what the hell I need to do here."
Ed dashes past my pillar. Realizing that I've been up here for quite awhile, I cast out my senses, realizing Ross is already a good distance away. Not really feeling up to going out to say goodbye, I get up and hop from crumbling stone to crumbling stone, following Ed off to wherever he's going.
He stops in front of the big circle-y thing he was looking at earlier. As he starts complaining about not being able to see all of it, a man walks out from behind one of the columns. I immediately recognize him to be an Ishvalan. He stalks towards Ed, wielding a large stick. Despite knowing Ed can probably handle this guy, I have the unwavering urge to beat something, so I suppose I'll make do.
He dashes towards Ed, raising his club/stick.
I jump down and tackle him, pulling a full Nelson on him, forcing him to drop the club. Ed spins around, immediately in a fighting stance when he realizes what's happened. "Lisa?!" he demands. "What the hell?! I could've taken him!"
"Could you have taken all of them?" I jerk my head towards the quickly growing crowd around us of Ishvalans with a rather large assortment of weapons.