5 March 1926

They had won.

It felt surreal.

They had won. He was sitting in the former Empress's reception chamber discussing the future of a Republic. The victory should have tasted sweet, but he was mostly struggling to keep a lid on his temper.

"Is something wrong, General Hua?"

Hua ground his teeth before forcing a smile. "Of course not… President. Though don't you think we should take a more… aggressive approach? I fear that if we don't strike while the iron is hot—"

"If you had your way, Hua, you'd strike the iron till it broke in two. The people have gone through much change. They need some sort of normalcy—"

There was a knock on the door.

Both men turned and stared at the door. Ling gestured at the door and a guard went to open it. A thin, shuddering man entered with his head bowed.

"President," he stuttered. "General."

"What have you come?" Hua snapped.

"I… sirs, I had nothing to do with it I swear!" The outburst seemed almost ripped from the man's lips. His eyes were wide and pleading. Both the Emperor and General's eyes narrowed.

"What was not your fault?"

"The… the Empress…"

"What?"

"The Empress… she… she…"

"What about the Empress?" Hua snapped, about ready to wring the man's neck. Meetings with President Yao always agitated him like this. He never should have let that viper tongued Yao convince him to give up the Presidency. Getting the Empress out of the way was not worth this.

"She… I didn't have anything to do with it… she…"

"Spit it out!"

"She is gone!"

Hua's jaw dropped.

"How!" he demanded, thundering forward and shaking the man by the front of his shirt. "How?"

"I do not know, sir, please have mercy! Our men went down to give her her food and the cell was empty… She was there last night! There was no sign of any forced entry or exit. There is not a single sign of her! She has simply vanished!"

"Find her! Find her now! Even if she escaped right after her meal was brought last night, she could not have gotten far. Send search parties—"

"No."

Hua turned around sharply staring at Yao like he was mad.

"What?"

"Do not breathe a word of this to anyone else," the President said, moving towards the man. Hua's eyes narrowed when he noticed that the man seemed almost more afraid of Yao than he was of him. "You cannot tell you wife or your children or your brother. Tell everyone you work with the same. It never happened. If I hear one word about the Empress escaping so much as breathed about on the streets, you will die."

The man nodded, an almost unnatural pale.

"If the rest of Xing were to learn that she had somehow escaped, it could utterly destroy their faith in us. They cannot know. Not a word."

"We can't just let her go free!"

"If she were to ever try to resurface, she will be captured and killed at once. If now, she can disappear into the pages of history to never be heard of again. She is no threat to us obscure."

"Except for the fact that she lives! She should not be allowed to go free!"

"Of course she shouldn't. But she'll do more damage being caught than having never escaped. We will let her slip away, forgotten. A mystery. That is it, Hua."

The Xingese revolutionary's eyes narrowed.

"Of course… Mr. President."

Yao nodded sharply and swept away, waving to show that the man could leave. Hua glared at him, but none the less spun on his heel and left the room. He couldn't deny the man's logic even if it screamed against every instinct he had to hunt every drop of royal blood left in this country until it was extinct. If everyone knew she had escaped it would cast doubt on their strength. And if she tried to come back and take her throne back… crushing her a second time would ensure the whole world knew there was no throne to return to.

Not that Al would know about it, but the past few days had actually opened up a steady business transporting Xingese citizens across the desert into Amestris. It wasn't illegal, per say, just… not legal. There had been no exact law enacted forbidding citizens from escaping the country, probably because they hadn't gotten around to it yet dealing with establishing themselves as the new government, but it was widely assumed and expected that if they were ever discovered ferrying hundreds of citizens away that the business would be swiftly put down and the players involved imprisoned or executed.

Of course Al, as a respected Ambassador and obedient follower of the law (human transmutation excepted) would know nothing about this… Yet there he was walked down the train station platform at 1:00 in the morning leading Mei (who was wearing a hood and trying to avoid looking at anyone or being seen by anyone) with his arm around her waist.

There wasn't anyone else here at this time of night except for a guard or two, who Al managed to avoid.

The occasional lamp splashed light on their faces at odd moments until Al finally found the right train. He muttered the numbers he was looking for under his breath, and it was Mei that pointed it out. He knocked on five times in rapid succession before turning to smile at her. She smiled back, but Al wasn't very reassured by it.

She had been so quiet the past few hours. And she was thinner. More worn. It unsettled him. Though he supposed it was called for. In the space of a few days she had gone from Empress, to being imprisoned, and now on the run from her own countrymen.

Just when it had been so long that Al began to worry that it was the wrong train and they would have to wait another day in the city, the door opened. The man who opened it was Xingese. He was wearing a hat pulled low over his eyes and was wearing a jacket with a collection of suspicious lumps and bulges.

The door was only opened enough for the man, and when he caught sight of Al his eyebrows rose.

"What do you want?" he asked in unrefined Xingese. Al considered himself rather fluent in Xingese, but he had only ever really spoke Xingese in Chengshi, among the court. It took him a few moments to understand what he was saying.

"We need passage. No questions."

"No questions is my specialty," the man answered. "Why are you having trouble getting out? Last I hear, they were trying to get rid of you as fast as they could."

"It's not for me, it's for my wife."

The man's eyes narrowed, before drifting over and catching sight of Mei. She didn't make eye contact.

"Your wife?"

"Her parents didn't approve. They threatened to—"

"I don't need the backstory," he cut off. "But I am going to need some payment."

"Of course," Al said, nodding. He reached into his pocket and procured the fee that he had been told he would need to pay. Passage for one person. It was a hefty price… but it was worth it if it worked. He held out the money, but the man didn't take it immediately.

"If you can't handle being uncomfortable, don't bother getting on," he said, addressing Mei specifically. "It's a long trip, and if you're going to get tucked in some nasty uncomfortable places to pace the check points. Everyone gets dropped in the desert ten miles outside of Ishval, a desert itself. If you can't handle that…"

Mei made eye contact with him for the first time and smiled. Al, looking sideways out her felt his heart sore. It was a confident smirk he wasn't sure he had seen since he had watched an overconfident Princess confront a homunculus.

"The desert's no problem for me. I went through a lot worse when I was eleven."

"You've never been to Ishval."

"That won't be necessary," Al said before Mei could respond. "Getting into Amestris is not the problem, it's getting out of Xing. Can you do it?"

"Sure. But it's not my problem if she gets shipped right back when they find her. Ishval's been sending them back like an unruly bride. They rely too heavily on Xing's using it as a crossroads to do anything to upset it."

"It's not a problem. Get us out of Xing and past the checkpoints, and I'll pay you as if we were making the full trip."

The man gave Al and long hard stare.

"Where have I seen you before?" he asked eventually.

"What?"

"There ain't many Amestrians in this country, and your face is one I recognize, I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. Who are you?"

"I'm a representative from my country. I'm trying to protect the woman I love by bringing her with me back home. Will you help or not?"

"Don't bite my head off," the man said raising his hands in surrender. "You've got the money. She'll ride."

"Thank you," Al said, inwardly relieved. He was sure that there were other operations helping the Xingese escape, but he had no clue where or how or how to contact them. They could have tried their luck at crossing the desert, after all Mei had made the trip twice, but it left far too much opportunity to get lost or starve or get caught.

The man took his money and opened the door wider so that Mei could climb inside.

"Mei," Al said, stopping her briefly. He grabbed her hand and kissed it gently. "I love you. Stay safe."

"I will, Al."

He smiled at her again before kissing her hand again and leaving, ducking his way around the lights and guard again. The door closed, leaving the train car in darkness. A few seconds later there was the sound of something being struck and a small light illuminated the Xingese man. Mei took a breath and faced him.

"Where do I go?"

"This way, Your Majesty."

She breathed in sharply, hand automatically flying to her sleeves where she kept her knives… but she didn't have them. They had been taken from her when she was sent to prison and there had been no time to replace them since Al had rescued her.

"No need to be alarmed, Majesty." The man bowed his head. "My brother, Fen-Li lost his job and couldn't afford to feed his family under your father. Under your rule, he was able to send his eldest son to a good school to become a part of the government and care for our parents. I've got nothing against you, and you paid a fair fee for passage. I'm not one to deny it."

"I thought the railroad workers were the least of my supporters."

"Well… I'm not exactly a legitimate railroad worker, now am I?"

30 July 1926

It took months, and if Al was being honest he knew it would take years. But she slowly began to smile more. She showed Benny and Sara alkahestry and tested them on how well they could sense qi. She helped Winry with the cooking and shared fun facts she had learned about the cuisine of different regions of Xing. He never kept any news hidden from her no matter how hopeful or dark. She knew everything he did, and he knew that meant a lot to her.

He waited until she was ready, and when she was, they had a very small ceremony in Resembool with their closest friends and family. Ed and Winry and their family were there, as well as Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang. They came as friends rather than the Fuhrer and his wife, although he did come bearing the documents she needed to establish herself as a citizen of Amestris and resident there since she was 11.

"We're even, Your Highness," he said handing the documents to her and putting his arm around his wife's shoulders. "And congratulations."

"Thank you," Al said fervently as she began to flip through them. "We can't tell you want this means."

"No need. I hope you two will be happy."

"Thank you," Mei said, smiling at him. "We were able to work closely together as leaders… I hope now that we're even we can move forward simply as friends."

"Of course, Your Highness."

"Mrs. Elric," she corrected, causing him to nod and smile.

"Of course, Mrs. Elric. I completely agree."

"Alright, enough with the pleasantries," Ed called, holding one child under his arm and trying to pull another one off his leg. "Winry made pie at the request of the groom and I'm not going to let it go to waste if you all aren't going to eat it."

"Sorry Fullmetal, some of us have actual jobs we need to get back to-"

"Yeah right! You're so full of it! I know you spend half of your time sleeping in your office! And for the last time, stop calling me Fullmetal! You switched to calling her Mrs. Elric right away! What is with you and outdated titles?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, we'll take the pie to go, geeze."

Al took the moment while everyone was distracted by the two bickering to kiss his new wife soundly.

"I love you."

She smiled softly at him, genuinely happy to be there with him despite the road they had been through to get there, and kissed him again.

"I love you too."