Chapter 2

The Commander

Ed, Al and Riza – Black Hayate at the woman's heels – disembarked the transport on the outskirts of Rush Valley, in front of the towering walls that marked the entrance to the city/base of operations. Constructed by the H-Faction when they had first occupied the area, the wall stretched across the mouth of the valley, and the towering mountains on the other three sides made Rush Valley near-impenetrable.

Which was why it had been such a surprise when the Rush Valley Resistance managed to drive the H-Faction out.

They were admitted into the city without too much fuss. They only had to flash their Dissident identification before the watchman ordered the enormous gates opened to let them enter.

They were the recipients of a few stares, most puzzled or curious but none downright hostile. Ed was relieved – he'd been wondering what the Rush Valley Resistance people thought of the military. He'd been half-expecting outright attacks as soon as they walked in the gates.

People milled about the main thoroughfare, unpacking supply wagons, carrying boxes to the buildings on either side of the road. A group of men and women stood in front of a small shop, watching a large man with one white eye demonstrate how to trip an attacker. Children played hopscotch and threw balls in the street, under the eagle-eyed watch of parents and older siblings who were all too used to threats against their family. All wore what Ed assumed was the symbol of the Resistance, a circle with a vertical line through it, displayed on the left side of their shirts and tattered jackets.

A dark-haired woman threw several bundles of material onto the back of a small pony, making some low comments to the people surrounding her that resulted in a chorus of laughter. She turned around as though to grab another bundle from the pile at her feet, but then her gaze landed on the three Dissidents. Her eyes scanned them with the practiced gaze of a warrior before her eyes widened and she did a sudden double-take.

"Ed?" the woman's voice rang across the road as she jogged towards them.

With a start, Ed realised the woman was Paninya. But a Paninya quite different to what they remembered. The dark-coloured jacket she was wearing showed obvious signs of hard use and bore the same bisected circle as the others in the Resistance. Her automail legs looked to be in top condition, if outfitted with more weapons then they remembered. But she also had an automail hand, and burn scars across the same arm.

"Paninya?" Al gaped.

Paninya regarded him warily. "And you are?"

"Al," Ed said proudly, "In the flesh and out of the armour."

"That's fabulous!" Paninya grinned. "No wonder I didn't recognise you!"

Her eyes shifted to Riza. "Who's this?"

Ed couldn't help thinking that Paninya's sharp, inquiring tone was the voice of someone who was used to giving commands and who was used to those commands being followed.

"Lieutenant Colonel Riza Hawkeye," Riza introduced herself, offering her hand.

"Ah, the military escort sent to pick up our Commander," Paninya nodded, clasping the blonde woman's hand. "I'm Paninya."

She noticed Riza's canine shadow and bent to look the black and white dog in the eyes. "And who's this handsome lad?"

"Black Hayate," Riza answered, and Ed noted the pleasure in her voice. Riza was very attached to her dog, and someone who paid the animal the same courtesy as his mistress obviously earned a lot of points with the woman.

Ed sometimes wondered if that was Roy's motive for trying to interact with Black Hayate. After all, hadn't he been the one to look after the dog while Riza was listed as MIA?

"As for you two," Paninya addressed Ed and Al, rising to her feet after giving the dog a pat on the head. "I suppose you want to see Winry?"

Ed managed a nod.

"Very much," Al confessed.

"Just follow me," Paninya said, turning and trotting down the street. The others followed.

Paninya led them through the winding streets with ease, until they came to a large, grey stone building that Ed knew hadn't been here the last time he'd come. It must have been built by the Resistance people, or maybe by the H-Faction. Six people were outside, like some sort of informal guard. A man and a heavily pregnant woman sat on crates and talked cheerfully. Two men bent over a game of shogi, concentrating intensely. Two other men stood just in front of the door, back to back, their combined vigilance covering the entire vicinity. Paninya raised a hand to hail them, and Ed hadn't taken two steps towards the group before the identity of the men on watch sunk in.

"What the HELL?" Ed exploded, at the same time Al yelled a wordless sound of disbelief and Riza's gun rose. Hayate snarled beside her, his hackles bristling.

The man facing them was undoubtedly Envy, and as the giant beside him turned at Paninya's hail he was easily recognised as Scar.

But as the Dissidents converged on the wanted criminals, Paninya threw herself in front of them. As one, the men playing shogi and the man talking to the woman leapt to their feet, converging and forming a living wall between the three attackers and their comrades like a tidal wave.

"They're okay, they're okay – they're on our side!" Paninya yelled at Ed and Al.

Riza felt a hand grasp her arm as the red-haired man who had been playing shogi took a solid grip on her wrist. She quelled the sudden flash of unreasoning fear.

"Easy, First Lieutenant. These guys are on the level now."

That voice...she knew that voice. The presence of Scar and Envy took a backseat to the sudden recognition that sprang within her mind. Slowly, hardly daring to believe it, Riza turned.

Heymans Breda was standing beside her.

He had a scar running from his forehead to his jaw, the line broken briefly over the dip of his eye socket. His red hair was now sprinkled with strands of white, and the black numbers tattooed on his arm – 319862 – spoke of his own time in the prison camps.

He grinned at her. "Been a long time, Lieutenant. Wasn't sure I'd be seeing you again."

Riza couldn't help the answering smile that curled her own lips. "Wasn't sure I'd be seeing you again," she echoed.

The words were few, but the wealth of emotion behind them was worth a hundred heartfelt embraces.

However, Riza also noticed Breda's reaction to Hayate's presence. Or rather, his lack of reaction. While he still eyed the dog warily, his reaction was nowhere near what it once would have been. She found herself wondering what had forced Breda to conquer his fear of dogs.

Ed and Al had apparently become aware a supposedly-dead man was standing beside them. Deciding that another friend coming back to life trumped the appearance of two deadly enemies suddenly on their side, they turned to extend their own, rather astonished greetings.

"No warm welcome for me?" Envy's mocking voice rose above the heads of the crowd surrounding him.

Ed's jaw clenched, and Al's eyes narrowed. Paninya made a small, calming gesture, and slowly, the three men parted. Envy's cocky grin made Ed want to smash his fist into the homunculus's face on principle. Scar, he was less sure of. Just a single nod in his direction, almost a gesture of acknowledgment, was all the reaction the Ishbalan had to their presence.

"What are you two doing here?" Ed spat, his voice low but tight with fury.

Envy shrugged affably. "What everyone's doing here, Fullmetal. Following the boss."

"The boss?"Al repeated blankly.

But they were interrupted as the door opened and out walked a woman Ed hadn't seen in five years. Winry Rockbell. He couldn't help his automatic rush forward...

Which was halted abruptly as the two men (minus Breda) again surged to form a living barricade – this time between Ed and Winry, their hands reaching for the guns strapped to their waists.

"Relax. I know these guys," the voice was definitely Winry, but the tone of command was something Ed had rarely heard from the blonde. At least, in regards to something not related to automail.

Reluctantly, the men parted. Ed was preparing himself for one of Winry's exuberant greetings, but was surprised when his arm was simply clasped tightly just above the wrist.

"I am so glad to see you guys," Winry said fervently, looking from Ed to Al, whose wrist she had in a similar clasp with her other hand.

"Riza," she smiled at the older woman.

Riza smiled back, but couldn't help being astonished at the changes in the woman she saw before her.

Winry's once-long hair was now cropped to just below her shoulders. She was dressed in the dark clothes of the Resistance, but the bisected circle wasn't present on her jacket. Instead, it was stitched in white on the black fabric of a headband that rested on the crown of her hair, keeping her fringe out of her face. Her normally slim frame had been stripped of all excess, and she probably would have appeared skeletal if not for the layer of thin, sinewy muscles under her skin. Two crossed gun belts – each holding a gun and bristling with ammunition – were slung across her hips, and a brace of throwing knives decorated her chest. If that weren't enough, a curved blade also rested at her waist. She wore fingerless gloves and strips of black material were wound around her forearms like a fighter's wrist guards. A long scar ran from the tip of her cheekbone, across her lips and down to the centre of her chin. When she smiled, her lips parted to reveal a chipped tooth in line with the scar.

"I knew an escort was being sent for the negotiations, I just didn't know it would be you guys," Winry said, looking around the circle of faces and grinning broadly. "How's it feel to be back in the flesh, Al?"

His grin and the sparkle in the younger Elric's eye was all the answer she needed.

Then Winry turned, calling over the two men and pregnant woman. "Get yourselves over here and be introduced!"

They approached slightly hesitantly, but the comfortable familiarity with which Winry interacted with Ed and Al seemed to put them at ease. The taller man and the woman looked strikingly similar – both with freckled skin, red hair and soft hazel eyes. The other man was short, but heavily muscled. His hair was black and tangled, and his eyes were a striking green.

"This is Christa Seren and her twin brother, Travis Burns," Winry explained, gesturing to the two redheads. "And this other lout is Kyle Seren, Christa's husband. Kyle, Christa, Travis...these two guys are Ed and Al," she indicated each brother respectively, "And this lady is Riza Hawkeye – her dog is called Black Hayate."

A few polite nods were exchanged, but Ed could tell it would take a while for these people to warm to them. He supposed when you were in the thick of battle, you regarded everyone around you with a certain amount of wariness.

But he still couldn't get over the changes in Winry. It wasn't just the physical, though those changes were numerous, it was something beyond that. Something in the way she spoke, the way she carried herself...

"By the way," Winry said, as though suddenly remembering something. "Christa, Kyle, Travis, see to the food truck. Make sure they remembered to stock for the extra twenty-seven from the last raid."

The three nodded and saluted as one, their right hand striking the bisected circle on their jackets. They held the salute until Winry returned it, then relaxed.

"Understood, Commander," they chorused, then turned away.

"Commander?" Ed and Al gasped as one. Even the normally unflappable Riza seemed shocked.

At their confusion, Scar fixed them a look that suggested he was having serious doubts about their intelligence. Winry grinned. Envy smirked. Paninya chuckled.

And Breda threw back his head and laughed. "Commander," he confirmed. "Every man, woman and child in this place answers to her."

Ed was stunned, Breda's words reeling through his mind. 'Winry...is the Commander of the Rush Valley Resistance?'

oooooooo

AN: I've been reading a lot of post-war fics lately, and most of them seem to revolve around the idea of Ed and Al being greatly affected by the war, and Winry helping them through it. And I couldn't help wondering...what if it were the other way around? And so this fic was born. This chapter is a little short, but the ones coming are much longer.

Thanks go, as always, to LaughingAstarael.