Chapter 14: Saying Goodbye

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Vashov was running as he fired shot after shot of his shoulder, clipping the chasing alchemist so as only to slow him down since he promised Riza that he wouldn't kill Roy. Roy would not have been killed either way because he was using his flames wisely to melt any oncoming bullets that were coming from Vashov and at the same time was heating up the sand around him to make it glass. When the time was right he started breaking the glass and flinging it at Vashov who had to doge each piece of glass being thrown at him until he was backed into a corner. Seeing it as he opportune moment, Roy went in for the kill with a flaming fist attack, but to his surprise Vashov used his close-quarters-combat moves to flip Roy over his head and then produced a knife to place to Roy's throat.

"okay this is the moment where we stop killing each other and come to some terms of agreement," declared Vashov tiredly as he looked at the equally tired Roy, but soon felt a flaming fist at his face as Roy went into counter attack mode and kicked Vashov off of him. "Damn! You have got to be the most stubborn jackass I ever met!"

"I get that all the time," said Roy as he rammed Vashov down into the ground and started punching him in the face with Vashov returning the sentiment. The flight soon broke into a blood sport as the two parties were experiencing split lips, black eyes, and broken noses with neither side gaining an upper hand.

It was then that Vashov slammed his hand into the ground and brought up some gravel that grazed Roy on the side of the face and soon Roy felt a foot pressed against his stomach as Vashov kicked him off in the same manner that Roy had kicked him off not five minutes ago. Coming up with a knife, Roy took a swipe at his opponent who had a knife himself and was using it to block all oncoming knife slashes that were being made at him. Vashov was very handy with his knife, simply waving it up and down to block each and every slash that was directed at him until he felt a burning sensation in his hand and realized that Roy had been taking a page from Colonel Guile and placed a saw blade on his knife to create a spark from the tension. Not wanting to be outdone, Vashov brought his hand back to grasp some of the earth that had been torn up and molded it into something else, a small blade that he brought out and shoved into Roy's right shoulder. Roy brought his flame up to burn into Vashov's face, giving him the needed distraction to stab Vashov in his abdomen.

"Stubborn fucker," cursed Vashov as he struck Roy in the lost eye and seemed to recreate the pain that Roy experienced when he lost his right eye. Both collapsed on the ground from their pain and were soon back on their feet, though a bit awkward from the previous state that they had just been in, ready to fight to the death.

They might have fought to the death had they not been stopped by a bullet shot between the two and a hand shooting out from the earth, made from the soil, each one from Riza Hawkeye and Edward Elric respectfully. It might not have ended if not for the women that were bound to the hearts of the two men respectfully jumped in between them, urging the ones they loved to stop all the mindless fighting and to put down their weapons. A minute passed between the urgings and the response, but it felt like an hour or two and was the most intense minute that any of them had ever experienced. When Vashov finally saw that Roy wasn't going to get up and attack him, he relaxed his guard and then fell down from the amount of blood he was losing from his body, the sticky hot blood spilling all over the floor. Calming his body down a bit, Vashov was able to tell his body to calm down and then let it reach a nirvana as he called his blood back into his body and like magic it responded to its master's call. There was a pause and then Roy spoke.

"I'm sorry to have suspected you of doing something like kidnapping Riza," said Roy with a slight nod of his head as if to bow at the behest of Riza. "I should have realized that you would never do anything like that to her and that you have in no way been hostile to any of us without cause. You won't have anything to worry about."

"And you will not have to worry about me being sore since I figured you would be like this," replied Vash passively as he waved the matter away with a simple hand gesture and out of nowhere came a big, zombie-looking man with green tinted dread holding a file of papers. "This is a list you can work with when you get back about men who are serving as spies in the military and high ranking members of the Philosopher's, each one with an address and documents to support claim. Right now I think you can both forget about the thing that they are excavating in this region because they are very wrong on that end. Right now we'll take the train and say that it got lost somewhere."

"How can the train get lost if it's on the tracks," asked Edward as he looked at the homunculi with a 'that makes no sense whatsoever look' permanently stuck to his face.

"It doesn't matter either way, the radio has been shot to hell as a precaution of other assassination attempts," said a voice from either side of them and everyone turned to see Sean standing with his leather gloves still on and a knapsack full of guns slung over his shoulder. "I thought that we could move to the place that the object of desire is at as well as avoid assassins if we made it seem like everyone died in the train and then we could get the object and have enough evidence to expose everyone in the military and government that is a part of the Philosophers."

"And you didn't wait for us to decide on it," asked Edward as he had an 'oh no not again' look on his face.

"I got the okay from Ms. Rockwell to do it," replied Sean as he pointed to Winry who was helping Al out of the train that had somehow found its way on its side.

"In my defense, he only keyed me in on the cutting communications apart," said Winry as she turned to defend herself, letting go of Al's hand.

"Wait, Winry, don't let go," bellowed Al as he fell back into the train with a loud thud before Ed brought him back up with alchemy.

"Oh I'm sorry Al, I didn't mean to let go," apologized Winry as she helped Al out of the train and checked him for any bleeding or other serious wounds. "Do you feel any internal bleeding?"

"Not that I know of," replied Al, who was now worried of something else happening to him.

"Stop with the phobias right now Alphonse, we have a lot of distance to cover and we will do fine without your phobias," said Sean, annoyed at Al's new habits that he believed he had received from having Winry baby him. "Anyway, according to the map of the area, we should find what we're looking for if we head southeast of here."

"I don't know if I trust the words of a mercenary, especially one acting without orders," protested Roy as he put Sean under a penetrating gaze, but Sean only returned the sentiment with a gaze of his own.

"I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart and you have the nerve to question me like that," asked Sean in a bit of mock offense. He then thought in his head, Plus I'm keeping you all the more blissfully ignorantof the happenings of the outside world, including the coup d'état that the rebellious faction of the Philosopher's is enacting right now, even though I've already sent an anonymous piece of evidence to the Fuehrer warning him of such a thing. For now I can only keep you on the route that my employer wants you to go on and keep you in the dark about that matter for as long as I can. Besides, you'll find out when it's all over and your division is here with enough evidence to reveal the Fuehrer's role in the Philosophers and his hand in some of the death orders that were carried out. My employer and I shall help you with your quest to root out corruption in the military, but only if you help my employer and I find what she wants so I can get my reward. And don't worry about your officers; I've made sure that the areas they have been sent to are ones that will ensure a quick victory.

"And he did seem to give good advice when he was talking to your commanders over the radio," added Winry as she looked over her shoulder at Roy, as if reporting on Sean's behavior.

"And just what gave you the right to do that," asked Roy as he walked up to Sean, his eyes glaring a hole into Sean, but Sean still seemed to be unaffected by any of it.

"It was simple when they told me that oaf a brigadier general Pellew was commanding the rebellious factions," replied Sean as he shifted his leather gloves. Damn it Winry, what the hell are you trying to do with the situation? You gonna blow my cover and that will only fuck the situation up more than having to convince the General that he should stay here. I swear to god, you nosey bitch, you're lucky I'm a gentleman and don't believe in killing unarmed women, even if I am being given a very generous reward for this job. Even if Dante is giving me a big reward, I have to stay true to my ideals and that is what keeps you safe, damn you. "Besides, I got word that the Fuehrer was prepared for this coup so you have nothing to worry about, it's obviously a move by our enemies to keep us in the dark."

"Fine then, I guess it does make sense, but don't you dare try anything like that again," said Roy.

Sean snapped a crisp salute and said, "yes sir."