Just as Manami was approaching the train station, she saw that the last remaining train was beginning to take off.
She had to take a risk, like the one she took in Rush Valley…
She avoided the station, where she knew there would be soldiers, cutting a sharp turn and to waving her fans to boost herself towards the moving train.
She got to the point where she was running alongside the last cart, and with one last wave of her fans, she launched herself towards the small platform at the end of it.
"Oof!" Manami just barely landed on it, and she had to pull herself over the railing to make it safely. She sighed in relief and threw the door open, squinting her eyes to make sure no one was in the dark cart before she stepped in.
It was pitch black and silent, except for the clickity clack of the train rolling over the tracks.
Manami looked around and only saw luggage surrounding her, and she deemed that no one else was in here… but she was wrong.
The moment she turned away and began pulling Winry's shirt out of her pocket, a pair of red orbs lit up inside the darkness.
"It happened again…" Al thought to himself, but froze when he heard footsteps. He closed his eyes, hiding the red orbs once again, but he listened closely. It sounded like someone was fumbling around...
"Come on you... ah! Got it..."
That voice sounded familiar…
Al dared to open his eyes once again and looked over, seeing a figure standing behind a pile of luggage. He had to lean forward and crane his neck to see...
But that was when Al's eyes almost boggled out of his helmet. He couldn't see much, but he definitely saw a girl with red hair that rested a few inches past her shoulders. She stood with her back facing him, removing her shirt.
"!" Should he look away?! He definitely should look away…
But something about her skin… shining softly in the moonlight that was peeking in from the small panel of a window behind her… it entranced him.
It was when she put on another shirt that Al could finally force himself to turn away. He could hear her start to walk towards him and felt himself start to panic. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes once more, only being able to see that vision of the mysterious girls' bare back etched in his mind…
"Get a hold of yourself!" He scolded himself in his thoughts.
Just as he heard her start to walk past him, her foot had caught on to a part of his armor, and she tripped.
"Ah!"
"!" Al regretted it the instant he started moving, but he quickly moved forward to catch her.
"?!"
They stared at each other, frozen in shock. Al expected that any minute, this unfamiliar girl would freak out, scream, thrash in his arms… but she surprisingly stayed very still and quiet.
"... Al?!" She gasped, her eyes widening.
"Huh?" Al blinked in confusion.
How did she know his name?
"Uh…" He was at a loss for words. "D-Do I... know you..?"
"O-Oh," She quickly removed her glasses. "It's me!"
He knew that something about her voice was so familiar… and the moment she took her glasses off, it hit Al like a ton of bricks.
"M-Manami?!" He squeaked, and she smiled from ear to ear.
Before Al knew it, she threw herself onto him and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him tightly.
"Y-You're here!" Al stammered, feeling something rising in his chest.
Happiness? Excitement? Anxiety?
One thing he knew for sure, it definitely was daunting to realize that the girl he just watched change… was Manami.
"Winry told me you were on the train… I almost didn't make it!" Manami said breathlessly as she pulled away from the hug, still smiling brightly.
"..." Al felt his chest flutter. "I-I'm sorry I didn't recognize you…"
"No, it's okay," Manami put her glasses back on. "It's supposed to be a disguise!"
"Is your hair red?" Al asked, unsure if it really was red, or if the dim lighting had made it seem so.
"Yeah, super red…" Manami chuckled weakly as she went to touch the tips of her hair that rested about two past her shoulders now. "And then I haven't had much time for a haircut, either, so it's really grown out…"
"I like it." Al spoke before he thought. "N-Not that it didn't look nice before..!" He quickly corrected himself and waved his hands.
"Thanks, Al." Manami was still smiling, so she must not have been offended.
"Um… so brother didn't come with you?" Al quickly changed the subject.
"No." Manami shook her head. "Since we're fugitives now… it was too risky for him to come meet up with you, and…"
"That didn't stop you?" Al asked, surprise in his voice.
"Not even for a second." Manami smiled wider, her eyes closing shut.
"..." Al could only stare back at her, as it suddenly all clicked in his mind… he finally figured out what this feeling he had was. Why he liked her company so much… why he hated being away from her… why some things she said, or even her smile would make him so happy… how, especially at this very moment, she just looked so beautiful.
He loved her.
He then felt a twinge of guilt. He wanted tell her what he had just realized, right here and now… but, how could he? How would she react if he were crazy enough to tell her something like that… while in a body like this? Heck, besides that, at a time like this?
Despite how much he wanted to tell her, he just knew… he couldn't.
Instead, he silently pulled her into another tight hug. Manami froze in surprise for a second, but she hugged him back, feeling happiness well up inside her.
"Thank you…" Al said softly. "I really didn't… want to be alone."
"I didn't want you to be, either." Manami went to pull away from the hug and smiled at him. "Besides… I missed you."
There was that feeling again... and it almost hurt, now that Al had a word for it.
"... I missed you too…" He hummed, but then he realized...
"O-Oh…" He went to reach for his side, and Manami looked over curiously. He used alchemy to unlock the chain from his side, but then he went to hold it up between them.
Manami's smile returned at the sight of her necklace.
"... I knew you'd keep it safe." She said quietly, slowly taking it back from him and then put it around her neck, making sure to use alchemy to connect the ends together.
"Thank you." Manami said, smiling up at him once again.
"... you're welcome." Al gave her a nod.
He couldn't tell her how he felt, but... being with her now, and seeing her smile…
This was enough for now.
"Well," Manami went to move and plop down to sit next to him. "We got a lot to catch up on."
"Only five months worth…" Al said.
"Well, who wants to be the first to unload all the updates?"
"Ladies first."
"So, yeah… and then I got here."
Manami finished providing her side of the updates and waited for Al to respond, but… he didn't.
She looked over to him, seeing the his red orbs that were his eyes weren't shining.
"... Al?"
Silence.
"..?" Manami went to get on her knees and lean closer to him, like getting a closer look would help her better figure out what was going on.
Al was silent. Motionless. Eyes dark. As if he were…
"O-Okay Al, you can cut it out…" She said nervously, feeling the anxiety building up inside her.
Every second he didn't respond, the worse it got.
"Al… come on." Manami pleaded, putting her hand on his shoulder now.
Still silent. She now reached to shake his shoulder.
"Al? Alphonse!"
"H-Huh?" Al jerked and his orbs returned.
Manami gritted her teeth as she slapped the side of his shoulder, more out of frustration than actually trying to hurt him.
"Geez! You scared me!" She hissed. "That wasn't funny!"
"…" Al groaned and put a hand on his head. "I-I'm sorry… I didn't get to the part about my developments just yet..."
Manami froze, her eyes beginning to tremble. "What do you mean..? What's going on?" She whispered.
"It's hard to explain, but… ever since I left you and brother, every now and then… I… lose consciousness."
"But… since when could you sleep?" Manami raised a brow.
"I can't." Al shook his head. "This is different…"
He took a deep breath, trying not to let Manami's worried expression stop him from telling her the truth.
"I think… this body is rejecting my soul… and my original body is trying to pull it back."
"..." Manami stared at him, jaw dropped. It took her a while to process what Al just said to her…
The armor… was rejecting Al's soul? What would happen if his soul went back to his body before they could bring it back?
Would he… die?
"..." Manami's head hung low, and she slumped. Al couldn't see her eyes from behind the glare of her fake lenses.
"Manami, it's okay—"
"How many times has this happened?" Manami cut him off, not looking up.
Al had to think for a moment. "This was… the fourth or fifth time? But really, it's not—"
"No… what you just told me… is that your body is now a time bomb…" Manami swallowed. "A-And If we're too late…"
"Manami, listen to me." Al reached to grab her hands from her lap and hold them in his, making her look up at him.
"We will not be too late, do you understand?"
Manami's eyes trembled softly, and Al tightened his hands' grips around hers.
"We will stop the Homunculi and get my body back before that happens." He said. "You have to believe we will."
"..." Manami stared back at him for a long while, before closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Then… she exhaled.
"I get it…" She said quietly. "Because… it'll happen on the Promised Day, right?"
She opened her eyes to meet his once again. They were still trembling, but she looked determined now.
"..." Al nodded.
"Exactly. On the Promised Day."
It was late into the night when the train finally stopped somewhere for the night. Manami and Al remained in the last cart of the train, sitting beside each other and hidden behind luggage.
Manami had been dozing off and on over the last few hours, leaning her head against Al's shoulder whenever she fell asleep.
"Mm… we stopped?" Manami had been jerked awake by the motions of the train stopping.
Without the sound of the train's engine, it was deafeningly quiet now.
"Seems so." Al looked down to Manami. "You should go back to sleep."
"I can't really sleep for longer than a couple hours at a time anymore." Manami said as she stretched her arms over her head.
"After being on the run and all… there were a bunch of night watch shifts."
"I see you and brother took the fugitive life seriously…" Al thought aloud.
Clank!
Al and Manami froze for a moment, then whipped their heads to look at the door to the train car. They listened closely for any other sounds, but there were none.
"... should we be concerned?" Manami whispered.
"Probably…" Al whispered back, slowly going to stand up and creep towards the door.
He went to put his finger to what would be his lips, then pointed to the door.
"Stay quiet. I'll check it out."
Manami shook her head and went to stand up. She pointed to herself, then at him.
"I'm coming with you!"
Al crossed his arms over each other, then pointed to the ground.
"No! You stay here!"
Manami let out a small huff and walked over to him and crossed her arms, giving him a pouty look.
"I'm going with you whether you like it or not."
Al rolled his eyes.
"Fine."
Al slid the door open to discover that they were in a train yard. He stepped out of the car first, and then Manami hopped out after him.
They looked around for a moment. All they could see were a few lamp posts dimly lighting the other train cars parked nearby. They then looked back at each other and shrugged.
"Maybe it was just a rock or something."
But suddenly, in between them, dribbled a large amount of drool. Some of it landed on Manami's shoulder and she shuddered— it took all of her to not shriek out of pure disgust.
But they both knew who could produce that much drool...
"?!" They both looked up to see Gluttony hovering over them, on top of some scaffolding.
"I smell sacrifices..!" He grinned. "Not just the FullMetal Alchemist's brother, but the Wind Alchemist, too!"
"?!" Manami's eyes went wide. Of course, Gluttony could see right through a disguise… in fact, he smelled right through it!
"!" Al quickly grabbed Manami's wrist and bolted in the opposite direction.
"You want me to chase you?!" Gluttony squealed with glee and jumped, and they could hear a loud THUD behind them as he landed.
Al had let go of Manami's wrist to allow her to run a few steps ahead of him, as they approached a lamp post. Manami crossed under the light, but once she made it to the darkness, she heard Al's clanky footsteps fall silent from behind her.
"?!" She quickly whipped around to see Al looking like he was struggling to move. There were black tendril-like things wrapped around his legs, anchoring him down.
"AL!"
"GO!" Al yelled at her, but he suddenly grew limp and fell against the train cart next to him. As he slid down to his knees, he put his hand over his eyes.
"No… not now..!"
Manami's eyes widened in horror when she saw Al fall to the ground with a loud CLANG, and not attempting to get up.
"AL!" She couldn't help but run back for him… though, once she came out of the darkness and once more stepped into the light that the lamp post emitted, she felt something coil around her whole body and constrict her.
"?!" Manami lost her balance and fell to the ground.
"What?!" She looked down to see black shadows all around her body, their grip relentlessly binding her to where she couldn't move an inch. She looked over to see the same shadows creeping over Al's body… and removing his helmet.
"S-Stop!" She cried, struggling desperately in her bind to no avail.
"Leave him alo—" The shadows suddenly wrapped over her mouth and nose.
She couldn't breathe!
What was this?! She knew that, for a fact, this wasn't something Gluttony could do...
"Don't resist." An unfamiliar voice cooed. "Rest for now. We'll wake you on the Promised Day."
"No…"
Manami continued to struggle, her chest getting tighter and tighter from the lack of air. Her vision was getting blurry…
"Alphonse…"
She looked up to see Gluttony approaching them, with what looked like a child on his shoulder… but before she could make out a face, she lost consciousness.