Chapter 13: Parting of Ways

Disclaimer: I do not own Full metal Alchemist.

Ed didn't know what was going on, but he was certainly going to get to the bottom of all of this, even if he had to break some bones to get it out. Getting up off of a passed out Winry, which he was glad that she was passed out because he didn't feel like being beaten to death for appearing to be trying to have his way with her, Ed made his way into the other column finding Sean on top of one of the waitresses for the car. By the hidden grin on his face, Ed could tell that Sean had corrected the direction of his fall and maybe even let himself fall to the ground since Sean had some uncanny ability to balance himself like a tight rope walker. With a grunt of disgust, Ed pulled Sean off of the blushing waitress and dragged him along while Sean tried to crawl back to the waitress, pleading to Ed that he hadn't even "gotten them digits yet."

"What are you doing," asked Ed as he looked at Sean with that look that said "there is no way to describe how pathetic this being is that stands before me."

"Doing exactly what I was meant to do, whatever the hell I god damn please," replied Sean as he got up and brushed himself off. "Unlike you I am not afraid to say what I want to say and I can do it without having to get plastered to gain the courage."

"I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Why haven't you told Winry how you feel, Ed? What the hell are you waiting for?"

"I was going to tell her how I felt before the train jerked," muttered the older Elric under his breath and then he saw how the ex-mercenary was staring at him. "What is it?"

"You just don't see the way you look when you mutter things under your breath," replied Sean before he walked into the next car and found that it was a burnt completely. Luckily there were no passengers inside, but there were footprints that had been left in the ash that were unmistakable. "We have homunculi on the train, you go protect Winry."

"No you protect her, you have no alchemy with you and wouldn't be able to take them on," argued Edward as he started running to the next car leaving an annoyed Sean behind.

"That was the reason you should be protecting her idiot," grumbled Sean as he walked back and decided it was okay that Edward took the fight since himself fighting would only complicate his position. Opening the library car, Sean picked up Winry and placed her in one of the beds that was set up just for that purpose. "I just have to keep my allegiance to myself and that will make everything a whole lot easier."

Edward Elric was certain there was something on the rain, maybe on the roof of the train or maybe in one of the cars ahead of the one he was in, but he knew that it was there. The footprint indicated that someone or something had been on the train and he would be able to see if out of the window if it had made a break for it. The surrounding area was just pure desert with nothing for anyone to hide in or behind. Moving further to the other car Edward began to hear the sound of something climbing on the roof of the car and he decided it was time for him to do some alchemy. He clapped his hands together and transformed the roof of the train into a hand to capture whoever was on the roof of the train, but as soon as he sealed the metal ball he heard a loud banging sound. The sound was soon followed by a loud eruption from the roof as a man with long dreads that had a greenish tint to them dropped from the roof and looked at Edward with indifference. After looking up at the Fullmetal Alchemist, the man simply placed his hand over his shoulder and appeared to rip his bone out of his shoulder and grew another one in place of the missing bone. The bone was sharper than normal and looked more like a bone sword so Edward changed his own automail arm into a blade and engaged the man or homunculus as it appeared. Ed brought his sword up to parry the blade of the man while he fought a violent battle against the homunculus, kicking the man and hearing bone snapping under his boots, but yet the man was still coming at him without even an indication that he was in any pain. What is he, thought Edward as he moved back from the quick slashes that the homunculus made at him, looking similar to the sword fighting of King Bradley. As soon as an opening presented itself, the fight was interrupted by a long bladed finger nail that belonged to none other than Lust.

"Stand down Omerta," ordered Lust as she glared at the homunculus for apparently acting without orders. "We have no quarrel with Edward Elric or any of the others so we shouldn't try to get into a fight with him. I'm sorry, Edward, for this mess up, but we are not here to cause problems, only to help."

"Considering that it's Vashov and he hasn't done anything big enough to make us assume he has ill intentions, I'll trust you for now Lust," replied Edward as he looked around for the others, but he found no one. "So where exactly did the others go."

"Well Vashov and Roy had a little disagreement and are now settling it outside," said Lust as she sat down with her smile, that one that showed she had some amusement despite it being a drag at the same time. "I guess I'll tell you how it happened."

FLASHBACK BEGINS

Lust watched the female military officer walk towards the door while Lust was clinging to the man she loved who was holding her in his arms with such warmth that it was so easy to overwhelm her. The woman, Riza Hawkeye, had a look that she had often seen in the eyes of Envy as he looked at the Elric brothers, and she knew that the woman was just like her and wanted what she wanted, to hug the men that they loved. It was the basic want of living sentient beings, the living creatures with emotions no those cold things that thought because they could never truly live except in their numbers and calculation. The only real thing was the emotion that encircled life, everything good or bad thrived on the emotions of hate and love. Lust felt a bit of sympathy for the woman, even though they had both tried to kill the other once, for she could see how much they were alike, Lust just let herself live because the fact that she wasn't human would never let her.

Lust was about to say something comforting to Riza after what vashov had said thinking it was a helpful hint when really it was a painful thought that would kill Riza if it have ever become something more than a thought. She would have said it, but something stopped the words from coming out of her mouth and held the sound of her voice in her throat. That thing was none other than General Roy Mustang opening the door to their car with a look in his eye that would have chilled the blood of a murderer. It wasn't just Lust who was affected by the eye, but also Riza, who backed away at the sight of it fearing that it was directed at her. And his growl was just as heartbreaking to her as that look in her eye.

Vashov didn't grimace or say anything that would make it seem like the words that were uttered had affected him because he knew those words weren't directed at Riza. From the moment Roy had opened the door and turned his gaze from Riza, the general's eyes had been fixed on him with a glare that looked like it could pierce any man or homunculus, but he wasn't affected by it. When Roy brought his gloved hand up, Vashov was already moving Lust behind him into the waiting hands of Omerta who took her off the train and he could see that he didn't have to worry about Riza since Roy was taking care not to hit Riza by mistake. Vashov could take Roy hating him, but if he had been the cause of Roy hating Riza he didn't know if he could live with himself. The homunculus dodged the ball of fire that shot out at him and managed to create a shield of metal around him to block the flame attacks that Roy was shooting out with anger, waiting for him to get the Flame Alchemist to calm down. When the flame attack ceased Vashov decided it was the time to have a heart to heart with Roy, but as soon as he brought the shield down he felt a fist against his face that left a burn mark on his cheek. A flash of anger shot through Vashov and caused him to strike back with a metal transfused hand that stung Roy's cheek as he was sent flying back.

"I think we should take this outside so we don't burn up everyone else," said Roy as he knocked Vashov through a door with another flame punch and was immediately thrown out himself by one of Vashov's metallic fist attacks from behind.

"An excellent suggestion," said Vashov as he removed his red coat and was left in only a black shirt and hits black pants with his gun belt on. Pulling the heavy revolver out, the homunculus emptied the barrel of the gun and took the beautiful piece of weaponry apart, placing each part of the revolver on a piece of red cloth that he had set on the ground. Putting his fist into a defensive stance, he marked the beginning of a fight.