Chapter Seven

Ed groaned slightly. She and Alphonse were being guarded heavily by two of Kimblee's men and they weren't going to be let out of their sight. Ed had been thinking of a plan to ditch them ever since they had been assigned to watch over them. They were in the North City searching for Scar as promised, but there didn't seem to be a lot of people around. Probably scared when there were a bunch of military soldiers around.

"Hey! I saw someone over there!" Ed and Alphonse shouted at the same time. Before the other soldiers even had time to react, they had bolted into an abandoned building and were running down the corridors in an attempt to escape. When they turned a corner, Ed quickly transmuted a wall in the middle of the hallway so the others couldn't follow. It wasn't like any of them were alchemists.

"And that's that!" Ed smirked as they reached the roof of the building and successfully escaped their guards. "I'm pretty sure we lost them."


Ed couldn't believe it. Mei had come to them along with Scar and even Dr. Marcoh. Oh, and some yuppie Ed couldn't remember, but who really cared about him. Of course, Scar was now injured because of a battle between soldiers before Ed and Al had found him, though he was restrained after they had found each other. Miles had soon shown up with Winry in tow.

"Why?" Winry asked Scar. "Why did you kill my mother and father?"

"There's nothing I can say that won't sound like an excuse. And nothing can change the fact that I'm responsible for their deaths," Scar explained. "I killed them. Young girl, you have every right to pass judgement on me."

Winry paused, looking over him. The last time she had seen Scar was when she held a gun to him. Ed had stopped her from shooting, though. Thank god for Ed.

"Your arm; you'll die if we don't bandage it," Winry said as she fished for a rag, wrapping up Scar's arm to prevent further bleeding.

"Winry..." Ed trailed off.

"Quiet, Ed," Winry snapped. "I think...I think this is what my parents would have wanted. Mom and dad saved his life before, after all. There has to be a reason for that."

"Does that mean you'll forgive me?" Scar asked shocked.

"Don't get me wrong," Winry said. "I don't forgive your want in murdering."

"Winry..." Ed couldn't help herself but to speak up again.

"It's all right," Winry said. "I won't cry. Didn't I promise that the next time I cried, they would be tears of joy?"

"Listen, Scar," Ed said. "No matter what Winry says, I still wanna beat you bloody and drag you down to the Rockbell family grave to pay your respects."

"I heard they're using the Rockbell girl as a hostage against you," Miles said, coming up with a plan. "If we act now, we can disgrace Kimblee and find some place to hide her where they can't touch her." He held his gun up to Scar. "Listen up, Scar. If you're willing to work with us, I'll postpone your judgement day."

"It doesn't look like you're going to give me any other choice," Scar said. "Yes, I'll help you."

"I have your word on that?" Miles asked.

"You do, I swear on my Ishvalan blood," Scar said. "You can trust me, my red eyed brother."

"We have a deal then," Miles said. "My apologies, miss Rockbell. We'll have to wait a while before we can punish your parents' killer."

"Fine," Winry said.

Marcoh held up a map of the mines in plans to escape, pointing through the direction to take. "The tunnels come out past the mountain."

"Right, once you run into Briggs soldiers, hand them this," Miles said, handing Marcoh a slip of paper. "I've explained our arrangement so you shouldn't have any trouble with them."

"Thank you," Marcoh thanked. "But there's still the matter of young miss Rockbell. She can accompany us to the fort, of course, but when word gets out that she's missing, won't the Elric brothers be the first people they suspect?"

"We can handle ourselves," Alphonse said.

"Yeah, I hate to brag, but I've got a pretty smooth tongue, you know," Ed added.

"No, this is Kimblee we're dealing with; he's very skeptical," Miles said. "He's automatically going to be suspicious of anything you tell him."

"Um, I hate to be the one to suggest this, but...what do you think Kimblee would do if I was suddenly taken hostage by Scar?"

Ed and Al stared at Winry, dumbfounded by what she had just said.

"You want him to kidnap you?" Alphonse asked.

"Hold on, Winry, you're saying you want us to let him go?!" Ed exclaimed.

"Right," Winry said. "Scar runs away carrying me. Then, Ed, you and the others try desperately to stop him, or at least that's what you pretend to do. Understand?"

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT; IT'S CRAZY!" Ed shouted.

"WELL I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE, DO I?!" Winry yelled back. "I'm a hostage either way, so I might as well get to choose my captor!"

"But he's a mass murderer!" Al protested.

"Al's right! There's no reason to be risking your life!" Ed interjected.

"don't you get it?" Winry asked. "It's time for you two to learn that you don't have to do everything on your own!"

"Make up your minds, the storm is coming in," Miles said. "If we don't hurry, we won't be able to get out of here."

"I can see Kimblee's forces now," a soldier called out.

"Dammit!" Ed shouted. "Scar, if you do anything to hurt her I'll-"

"I won't harm the girl," Scar interrupted. "I keep my promises."

"All right, Scar, give us a good performance," Miles ordered.

"I know what I'm doing," Scar responded.

As the others were guiding Winry out of the building, one of the soldiers stopped her.

"Excuse me, miss, your ears," he said. Winry touched a hand to her earrings. The earrings Ed had given her those years ago. "Your earrings are made out of metal. If you don't take them out, you'll get frostbite."

"All right," Winry said, taking them out with haste. She turned to Ed and placed them in her hands. "Ed, you hang onto these for me. I'll see you back at the fort."


The building exploded just as Edward was running out, catching her in the smoke and mess. "Dammit!" she exclaimed.

"What's going on in there, Fullmetal?" Kimblee asked.

"You bastard!" Ed shouted. "This is all your fault, Kimblee! You were supposed to be watching Winry!" And it was all his fault. Ed knew this whole thing was Kimblee's fault. She didn't want to let her go into the clutches of a murderer.

"Mister Kimblee, look up there on the roof!" a soldier exclaimed, pointing to Scar holding Winry in his arms on the roof.

"Tell me something, Kimblee, do you remember when we first met?" Scar asked from above. "It seems we've changed places."

"You shouldn't be so confident!" Kimblee smirked.

"Kimblee, damn you!" Ed shouted. "Tell me why! Why is Winry here?! We finally got Scar cornered and now he's taken her hostage because of your!"

"Stand aside," Kimblee said as he prepared to clap his hands together in a transmutation. Ed gripped them quickly.

"What are you doing?! Stop! Stop this now, Crimson Alchemist!" Ed shouted. "Can't you see that Winry's up there with him?! I won't let you attack!"

Kimblee dropped his hands. "Not so fast, Ishvalan!"

"No, wait!" a soldier called out. "It's much too dangerous to get close to the building!"

As the others walked from the building, Miles stayed close to the Elrics.

"That was a convincing performance," Miles commented.

"It wasn't a performance," Ed said. "I'm every bit as angry as I sounded back there. I feel so worthless having to put on this stupid charade."

"But at least Winry's safe," Al added.


"General Armstrong has been summoned back to the Central Command Center," Miles told the Elrics.

"This is bad," Ed said. "Without General Armstrong at Briggs..."

"A commander handpicked by Bradley will be posted in her place," Miles finished.

"What do we do about Winry?!" Ed exclaimed. Without the help from the military, it was difficult to keep her safe.

"Hiding her and the others will be difficult," Miles spoke. "If they're not careful, they're bound to fall into the enemies' clutches."

"We have to find a way to warn them," Ed said.

"There's no way we can catch up to them in a storm this bad," Miles said.

"So we sit there and do nothing?!" Ed asked. "I'll go tell them."

"Don't underestimate the storm out there, kid," a soldier spoke. "You'll freeze to death before you get anywhere close to catching up."

"There is a way," Alphonse spoke suddenly. "Send someone without a body. That storm won't freeze me to death."