A/n: Before I get onto fic, I just want to announce the winner of the competition. First of all; I had many, MANY fantastic entries, 43 in all, seeing as many people submitted multiple names. It was VERY difficult, choosing a winner, especially with all the great reasoning behind the choices.
It was clearly obvious the amount of thought that went into some of the names. I had names turning up in French, Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, even Native American! All were supported very well and it made it very, very hard for me and my judges to decide a winner.
However, after much deliberation and head straining, and late nights drinking coffee and pondering which would best suit, the judges and I chose. The winner is... Hui Yan!
Their entry White Tenshi Poem won us over, however I did rearrange it so it wasn't a mismatch of languages. Thus, the ship will forever go down in history as: Shiroi Tenshi no Shi
Or for those of us who don't really get Japanese, "Poem of the White Angel."
Congratulations, Hui Yan! Now, on to the fic!
Ling looked about the small room he was seated in with disinterest. He'd passed through a mostly empty (he was bothered by this) medical wing on the way into the broom closet-sized hole he and his captor were contained in. His eyes glittered slightly when he thought of all the methods he could use to play these idiotic creatures and of just how he would get what he wanted. Already, the angels were getting frustrated with his unerringly calm façade and it wouldn't take them long to become highly annoyed with his constant avoiding and non-sequitur answers. He'd only need a few more minutes before he could attempt an escape. Ran was seated next to him, her eyes flickering over every so often as if she was worried. He skilfully avoided answering yet another question and the black haired angel probably would have sighed if he hadn't been nearly as skilled at this game as Ling was. However, Ling didn't miss the way that even through the smirk, the angel's eyebrows pressed slightly closer in annoyance.
"I don't appreciate being lied to." The male angel said, the solitary uncovered globe in the room shining over his face and making him appear hawklike in the gloom. It caught off his black wing feathers and made then sheen almost electric blue to give a spooky effect. Ling knew that captives before would have cracked under the mere presence of this man. Of course, Ling wasn't an ordinary captive. "And I am not so stupid as to assume that you are anything less than important, as one of my most trusted men saw fit to keep you alive." It was amazing how this creature worked, reflected Ling, So far he hadn't detected one lie. Many half truths and omitted details, of course, but no lies. A brilliantly ejected strategy, seeing as most people would assume that there would be many a lie in what the angel was saying and they would act accordingly.
"There must be some mistake!" Ling gave his best false smile, keeping his eyes pressed into slits. Much like this angel's ploy was the half-truth, Ling's was a combination of innocence and over exuberance to deter the intended target from the true subject matter and onto more trivial matters. He gave a half-hearted wave of his arms. "I am but an innocent human soldier, thrown unwillingly into the heat of war and captured by the enemy." His smile faded purposefully and his act took on an air of remorse.
"If you are not to release me and my sister here" Ran flinched, but as the trusted bodyguard she was, didn't dispute his story. "Surely we will suffer a dire fate of starvation and death! Our warrior leaders will not send a search party for low creatures such as us." It was somewhat true. While Ling was highly influential and politically inclined, he still knew that the lower class image he was presenting would mean a total disregard by the earth forces. He almost pitied the blonde girl who had been captured with them. She would not be saved, even if Ling and Ran were.
Ling realised the angel wasn't fooled by his ploy for a second and gained a new respect for his captors. The challenge introduced now in this battle of wits was one he quickly accepted. The smile he gave was as false as his combatants' smirk and he knew that neither was pulling the wool over the eyes of the other.
How fun!
"I will be blunt." The angel said wryly, still playing a game where only half the truth was told. "I do not suffer fools. You will tell me your name and your rank, earth boy, and we shall work our way upwards from there." The angel leant forward ever so slightly and Ling was certifiably impressed. There was a small power play expressed in that movement and it was not lost on him. It also didn't work but that wasn't the point now, was it? The point was to make it obvious that the power plays Ling had already established in his loose and uncaring posture hadn't worked either. He rolled his shoulders in acknowledgement as Ran shifted slightly beside him, fear getting the better of her.
"There is a strange energy in here, Young Master." She said, changing the playing field yet again as she struck the angel's curiosity. The creature's eyes flicked to her for the briefest of moments before returning their focus on Ling, but now Ling could tell where the creature's attention really was. "I think you should tell them."
"My name is Hito." Ling supplied cheerfully, surprising his captor with his sudden willingness to give information. It was a given that the surprise would not last long but for the moment he relished in the ever so slight lifting of eyebrows he induced. Ran stiffened next to him and he knew full well why. She hadn't expected him to use an alias. She hadn't expected him to give any information at all, not even if it was false. It wasn't the way he usually played, but it was a dirty tactic he knew how to use.
"Hito, hmm?" the angel said thoughtfully and Ling felt a strange compression in his head that he would deny later. His smile turned slightly satisfied before settling back on clueless as the angel appeared to accept his name.
"Well," The angel said, his posture radiating of smugness now that he was 'getting somewhere', "Now that we have a name," Alarm bells shot up in Ling's head as the angel failed to use both the alias and the word 'your.' He dismissed it as a quirk of his captor, a way to sniff out a lie and shrugged at the angel. With a sigh, it continued, "What is your military rank?"
"You wear a lot of blue." Ling said, nearly beaming due to the tiny twitch that appeared above the angel's left eye. Ran gave him a small exasperated glance, but he ignored it in favour of relishing in his small victory. Smug satisfaction rolled through him, the game was going well.
"This is my uniform." The angel replied in an even tone. "What is your rank?"
Ploy detected, acknowledged, humoured and dismissed. This angel really was good. With a roll of his eyes Ling dispensed the only true bit of information he was willing to give in this battle. "I am a mechanic." He was slightly put out that the angel had refused to let itself be carried down a different track. He hadn't been willing to part with any more information than necessary until late in the battle. He wouldn't admit this, though, that the angel had won that volley, it went against his nature. His slitted eyes crinkled purposefully. "What about you? What's your job aboard this ship?" He asked partly out of curiosity, partly to take the angel by surprise.
He was rewarded with a slight tightening of the lips, not a particularly satisfying reaction in the grand scheme of things, but better than nothing. "That is none of your concern." It was a statement that boded no argument and Ling almost, almost believed these people had some sort of authority over him.
Thankfully the feeling passed within a few seconds of its arrival.
"Who is your friend here?" His captor asked.
Ling grinned. "That is none of your concern." He replied in a sing-song voice. He leaned back on the stool with a flourish. The childishness of the words had definitely been worth it, his captor appeared to have not expected something that far out of left field, such a beginner's tactic. "However," He continued, slipping into a lie, "The other girl we picked up is very rich and powerful. Why are you wasting time questioning us when you should be questioning her? She could tell you so much more than we could."
There was a moment of struggle on the angel's features, and Ling was almost convinced he had won until with a slight nod of his head, the angel said, "You mean Winry Rockbell, of the human lower classes, an automail mechanic?" The smirk grew pronounced as ling baulked slightly. He hadn't expected the angels to have already questioned the girl. He was hoping to establish a loop in which they would question her and her honest sincerity would lead to more confusion. The angel wasn't finished speaking however. "She is the friend of one orphan, Edward, who informed us quite awhile ago of the non-stature both she and he held in your human society."
"Your 'Edward' is lying!" Ran snapped angrily and Ling could have slapped her. Rule number one of this situation, if you're lying, never accuse anyone else of lying at the same time. "You mentioned he was her friend. Of course he'd lie to protect her from you vultures."
The angel's smirk turned into the kind of victory smile Ling usually wore at the end of a mind game and the creature leaned forward further. This time, ling only just resisted the temptation to lean away. "Edward lives his life based on honesty, little human. All avians do. We do not lie."
There was the unmistakeable click and whir of a weapon warming up and (taking both Ran and Ling by surprise) two angels suddenly appeared in the corner of the room out of thin air. They stood just behind the questioner, only just illuminated up by the singular light of the room. One looked like the creature who had won the verbal duel, the face of this being set into an almost evil scowl, eyes hidden by flashing spectacles. This creature had grey wings, each visible feather taking on a menacing appearance by the way the light hit them. He was the one holding the gun and it was pointed squarely at Ling's chest. Ran took this in and shuffled slightly, but there was no way to protect him if the angel chose to fire.
The other angel was obviously young, probably the same age as Ran. He had a round, gentle face with large grey eyes and an apologetic smile. His wings were only tiny, barely capable of flight and they were a cottony white colour, they appeared to be mostly down, curiously. The angel's hair was a dirty blonde colour and Ling was almost fooled to think that this was a real angel; not an invader, but one from legend. He also knew that within the next few years, the image would fade and it would loose its infancy. He appeared to only be watching the proceedings, but not without his own share of curiosity. Ling caught himself wondering if the angel hadn't been following the mind games from the beginning.
Their interrogator watched as Ling and Ran took in the two new angels and smirked smugly. Taking their attention away from the gun in his comrade's hand, he said quietly, "Now Hito," He leant forward, steepling his fingers. Looking at ling through his eyelashes he continued, "Would you care to inform my good friend over there or your true name?"
Ling winced. "You cheated." He said, slightly sulkily.
When Edward came to, the first thing he was greeted by was the rather loud and highly annoying sound of angry footsteps just beyond the base of his hospital bed. He made a face, but thought nothing of it before shaking off some initial disorientation (hadn't he just been on Mars?). He blinked a few times to clear his head and when it was significantly less fuzzy and the footsteps were somewhat further away, he tried to sit up.
Thus, Edward Elric made his first mistake of the day.
Searing pain shot through his head, back and left leg, pooling somewhere close to his knee and also around the bridge of his nose. He groaned and fell backwards with an undignified flop and landed on the soft white bedding that Gracia insisted was used for all her patients. The bedding meant he was back aboard the ship, his mind informed him, and not in some human lab. That's always a good thing. Edward thought with a small, pained smile before the expression flitted off his face. The footsteps had stopped, and he suddenly became aware through its sudden absence that someone had been muttering under their breath.
There was a pause, and then Gracia said with a slight air of relief, "Oh! You're awake!" She came over to his bed and her face and gentle smile swam into view. Edward blinked as she rested a motherly hand briefly on his forehead. "You gave us quite a scare, Ed. How are you feeling?" Her motherly tone was comforting and Edward found the pain in his head receding slightly.
"Sore." Ed answered truthfully and she smiled, pressing her hand down harder. It took more of the pain away and Edward realised her special ability. She could heal. "My leg hurts most though. But only up to my knee. The rest of it feels fine."
He couldn't be bothered lying to her at the moment, seeing as she would see straight through them anyway. He did notice her wince when he mentioned his leg, but didn't question it, instead sorted it as something to figure out later.
There was an awkward pause in which Gracia smoothed down his hair, running her dainty fingers through it. The sensation was relaxing almost, and Edward felt himself beginning to drift off to sleep again. He looked up at her face through quickly closing eyes and she smiled at him warmly.
He was about to say something to her as he fought to stay awake, but the next moment was punctuated by what sounded like loud, angry swearing in a voice Edward didn't recognise, combined with what seemed to be Mustang's ferocious replies. The yelling originated (Edward discovered as he turned his head to one side) from the small room in which he'd first gained his wings. Gracia gave an angry sigh.
"Oh for goodness' sake!" She said irritably, standing and striding quickly to the other side of the hallway. Her footsteps and body positioning reflected her annoyance as she clicked her way over the linoleum floor Edward worked his way up to his elbows, ignoring the slight twinges of pain he experienced and followed her with his eyes. She rapped on the door in front of her smartly, before opening it a little harder than she probably should have and placing her head inside. "Captain, Maes, Alphonse, respective human guests. Please, this is a hospital wing you are currently in and I would like to remind you yet again that there are sick people just outside your door. Please keep your voices down."
A murmur of apology floated through the open doorway and Gracia's expression softened so much that Edward could see it. "Sir," She said, returning to her normal tone of mother and doctor rolled together, "He is awake."
He followed her progress back around the room, she checked up on a few things, occasionally looking over to him with a smile. She stopped over the only other occupied bed, checking the occupant's statistics with a slight crinkle in her forehead. She straightened out the sheets of the bed as best she could while it was occupied. "Poor girl."
"What happened?" Edward asked curiously, and Gracia baulked slightly.
"Post battle trauma. She's sedated at the moment, but they should wear off soon. Then we'll see if I need to put her on another lot or not. It's not the best solution, granted, but it keeps her calm enough so she can catch up on some much needed sleep." She made a face. "The darling was slightly undernourished and bordering on exhaustion when they brought her in to me. I wonder what she could have been doing to put herself in this state." The concern was evident in Gracia's voice as the woman moved away from the bed and to the supply cupboards on the far side of the room. He moved to sit up as to better keep her in his line of sight when he noticed something highly odd about his leg. He couldn't get below his knee to respond for some reason.
"What the..?" He said, own brow crinkling as he sat up fully. He looked down the blankets to where his leg was misbehaving and his confusion made itself more prominent. The bed sheets bunched at his leg joint and gave the illusion that about half of his left leg was mission. Blinking curiosity and letting out a slightly confused noise, Edward pulled the sheets straight, and when that failed to work, casually flicked them off his legs so he could see the problem. His eyes fell onto a stump wrapped in fresh white linen. It took him a moment to register just what he was seeing, and slowly, very slowly, uncontrollable tremors began to run over his body.
"Oh dear." Gracia said, rushing over from the supply cabinet on the far side of the room. Edward didn't register her movements, his vision taken up by, and his mind focused on the stark white bandages wrapped around where his leg should have been. He opened his mouth in an attempt to deny what he was seeing, but something firmly lodged in his throat making it impossible for him to form even a nonsensical sound, let alone a word.
His body was shuddering now, the tremors having escalated violently until they wracked his frame with their force and he slouched forward, in on himself, his arms coming to wrap protectively around his chest as his gaze remained fixed on his missing limb. It flooded his vision, mocking him in the cruelest way it possibly could. His voice returned suddenly. "No." He said in a whisper so quiet it was hard to tell if he'd said anything or not. "No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no." With every consecutive denial, his voice rose until he was shouting. His conscious thought was slowly being replaced by an echoing scream as his body thrashed beyond his ability to control it.
He wasn't aware of the door that flew open at the end of the hall or of Gracia's quick and precise movements to the cabinets where he would have recognised the sedatives were held if he had of been in a stable state. He didn't hear the frantic clicking of familiar shoes over the linoleum towards him. Nor did he register the fact that medicine bottles were shaking in their holders and that bed pans all around the room were rattling in time with the shudders racing across his skin. Blue crackles of electricity spiralled all around him, but he didn't see them nor the way one struck the needle Gracia had been coming towards him with, shattering it into a thousand small pieces and throwing Gracia back a few feet in the process. She stood, shaky and slightly dazed, but Edward wasn't concentrating on her in the given moment and missed this.
Someone, somewhere in the ward, was screaming.
Strong arms wrapped around hi from behind, and he was suddenly pressed into a planar chest covered in a thick layer of ship-regulation cloth. He thrashed violently and tried to escape those arms but they clung to him, refusing to let him go as a voice softly whispered to him, "Calm yourself, Edward." The voice was slightly shaken, but authoritative and sliced through the screaming in the air and his head like a knife through soft cheese. Edward let the arms wrap around him then, and let himself be held. He felt almost safe there, like the arms were taking away all of his pain and slowly, he felt himself begin to relax in the embrace.
The shivers running through his body slowed and calmed after a few minutes, but Edward remained in those arms like they were his lifeline. He remained there for a long while, looking at the stump of his left leg and coming to terms with the fact he had lost yet another limb.
Roy held Edward to him like the young man was some kind of china doll as slowly his prince's shudders rolled to a halt. It had been in the moments when Edward had shown his unusual quirk through being able to send out lightning that Mustang had managed to get close to him, he'd slid up onto the hospital bed and hugged Edward from behind in an attempt to prevent people from getting electrocuted. He'd never seen such a reaction before, and he wasn't sure if it was because of the stimulus that Edward could even use it, or if it was the stimulus that was the reason he couldn't' control it. Ed's breathing hitched and he gave what could only be called a cough (but wasn't really one.) before settling back down. Gracia, once assured that her patient was as well as he could be left the bedside to clean up the mess made by the shattered syringe. Aware on the perplexed expressions that every member of the room wore, and the presence of the prisoners, Roy faced an inner struggle. Take command and order control, or comfort the young man in his arms. He leant back slowly and by default dragged Edward with him until his back was pressed against the headboard, Ed's head resting on his solar plexus. The young man's shoulders were in Roy's lap and his wings were folded outward in a slightly awkward position, but Edward didn't seem to mind too much. He voiced no complaint in any case.
Once he was sure that Edward was secure, he loosened his grip on the teen, bringing one hand up away from the hug to thread it through long, blond hair, currently spilled out over Roy's stomach and hips. "Don't" Edward croaked out, moments before Roy's hand made contact with the liquid blond, "push your luck."
With a chuckle, Roy returned his hand to its earlier position in the loose embrace. "I wouldn't dream of it, Princess." He whispered for Ed's ears only before turning back to the onlookers. "Hughes." He said, and if it had been any other situation, he would have laughed at the way the man jumped suddenly to attention from his open-mouthed pose. "Escort the prisoners who are currently able to be moved into the holding chambers. I wish to further question them later, but at this point in time I have more important matters to attend to." He didn't add that he couldn't bear to be around the black haired male one much longer without throttling the boy.
Hughes nodded with a small "Yessir." But there was a strange look on his face as he said it. He jerked his head at the two bound prisoners, reaching out to snag the male one's arm when neither would move. Hughes attempted to drag the creature away, but it was staring at Edward with a look of wonder and would not move. Instinctively Roy tightened his grip and sent the annoying creature a scathing look, but the human took a step towards the bed, breaking free of Hughes' hold in the process.
There was a moment in which nothing was said as Edward and the human locked eyes, then, "Gabriel." The human said, and for the first time since he had been on the ship, the creature's eyes opened to more than a slit. Confirmed in the narrow, black gaze so like Roy's own was what Roy had suspected from the start. The human standing before him was a conman and a good one at that. "You are. The archangel Gabriel."
Edward's reaction to what was being said was shocking to say the least. The young man flinched violently away, throwing himself into Roy's chest and pressing against it as if he could push through Roy and hide on the man's other side. Edward, still high strung from his last emotional outburst began shuddering once more, wings curling around himself in an instinctual display of fright. "I don't know what you're talking about." He whispered, eyes wide and fearful, "I'm Edward."
Gracia had returned to the bedside and looked torn between helping Roy calm Edward and scolding the human for his improper bedside manner. The human took a further step towards the bed, and even though his hands were visibly restrained, this act served to make Edward's wings curl tighter around him as the prince let out a small, frightened whimper. Edward was putting a great deal of stress on his injured leg, which Mustang tried to convey to him by briefly tightening the embrace past the comfortable point before loosening it again. It was too late however, and the white linen became slightly stained with red. "Hughes!" Roy barked at the same time as the human once again spoke.
"What did you do with the failures, Gabriel?"
Edward flinched, even through the shudders that were wreaking havoc on his body. I don't know what you're talking about." Roy suddenly found his face was marred with a deep scowl.
"Hughes, get him out of here!" he snapped, but the man wasn't listening, focusing his attention on the 'conversation' that Edward and the human were having. He looked amazed and shocked, along with sinfully curious. "HUGHES!" Mustang tried again, to no avail.
"We've been looking all over for you, Gabriel. You've caused quite the stir." The human continued. "How amazing it is that you managed to make your way back to these bastard birds." There was an angry ripple that passed through every avian presently in the room, even Edward, which came as a slight surprise to Roy. "We all knew you were clever, a genius even, but how did you figure it out?" The human shook his head. "That is what I'm having trouble trying to comprehend here, Gabriel. How did you figure it out?"
Edward's shakes doubled in quantity "Please, I know no Gabriel. I'm Edward Elric." But there was a hint of pleading to his voice now, and Roy became pointedly aware that Edward had at least some clue as to what was going on.
No one noticed the figure get out of the other occupied bed in the ward.
The human sighed. "Gabriel," He said almost patiently, "Where are the rabbits?"
"Hughes, get him out of here!"
"My father told me everything about you, Gabriel. About how those two foolish humans thought you could be raised and integrated into human society. How your wings were cut off while you were still only a mere infant." He sighed. "About how they insisted that you were 'human' and capable of 'human thought' and emotion. About how they thought it was wrong for you to be used in the way we intended."
"Of course, they were punished, weren't they Gabriel. They were made less than human, so you could all live together as a 'family'." Edward's fear was slowly turning into anger as his thoughts made the jump that Roy's already had. This human was talking about the Carltons.
"Don't you dare talk about my Mum and Dad like that." Edward snarled, the adrenaline pumping through his system starting to prime him for a fight. "They're better than you'll ever be. And cut this Gabriel crap, I'm Edward Elric!" accompanying his statement was a loud thunk and the human slumped, revealing the girl Edward had insisted was his friend on Mars' surface. In one hand, she held a spanner that Roy was unaware she had in her possession, her other hand was placed on her hip angrily. Her face was twisted into a horrible expression.
Shocked silence reigned supreme for nearly a minute before Edward cautiously asked, "Winry?"
The girl's previously closed eyes snapped open, and everyone was greeted with a frightening flash of angry steel blue. "Damn straight." She said, flipping her waist length hair over one shoulder.
"Young Master!" The other human girl cried, darting forward and wrapping her arms around the unconscious creature's form. She looked up at Winry and nearly snarled. "You killed him!" She said, overcome by a moment of panic.
With a roll of her eyes, the standing human slipped her spanner back to wherever-it-had-come-from and focused her gaze on the dark haired girl. "Don't be an idiot, Ran. I just knocked him out. There's a difference and he deserved it for what he was doing to Ed."
"I don't fucking need your help, Winry." Edward interjected sulkily, from where to Roy's surprise he was still nestled in the older Avian's embrace. He was beginning to tense; however, And Roy thought it was best to move before he faced dire consequences. Unwinding his arms from the boy, Roy slid out from underneath him and stood near the bed. "I was perfectly fine on my own."
"Yup. Because you can really move on your own right now, and you would have done something stupid and dangerous again if I hadn't stepped in." The girl replied effortlessly and Roy made a face at her. How dare just a mere human be so comfortable around the prince of all avians?
Roy sighed, deciding to restore some sort of stability to the current situation. "Hughes, escort all the humans to the holding cell..."
"Winry stays here." Roy baulked, and all heads turned towards Edward where he looked them over with a resolute expression. "I don't care where you put the other two, but Winry stays here." Roy sighed. He couldn't refuse an order from someone who outranked him, as much as he would have liked to.
"Hughes, escort humans B and C to the holding bay. Alphonse, stay here, watch over Human A and if she even looks about to make a wrong move, you have full permission to put her into a stasis illusion." Roy was pulling out the big guns. Stasis illusions were like locking the person inside their own mind for as long as the Elric who initiated it chose to keep them there. The person wouldn't even realise they had been taken out of the real world and that everything they were doing was part of an illusion, they were that effective. Edward made a face, and so did the girl.
"I have a name, mister big-shot. I'm Winry."
Roy cast her a brief assessing look, but eventually continued on as if she hadn't spoken. "Edward, of course, will remain here, as will I. Gracia, if you would busy yourself elsewhere for the time being?" Hughes stood as he was speaking and hefted the limp body from the ground, jerking his head in the direction of the hospital wing's door while looking at the other girl. She stood resolutely and followed behind him as if it were the last thing she wanted to do, but would not leave the male.
Gracia still hadn't moved. Roy raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm sorry sir." She said quietly. "Edward is bleeding. If I may attend to that first?"
"Got it!" The remaining human said, placing a pressure over the red bandages. "I'm somewhat of a doctor myself, so I know how to stop bleeding." Roy winced in sympathy at her roughness and Edward grimaced as if he were almost used to it. In any case, it got the job done, so Roy sent a pointed look at Gracia and she sighed and moved off.
She headed into the room Roy had been in earlier, presumably to convert it back from the makeshift interrogation room it had become.
Roy glanced at Edward for a moment, then at the others remaining in the room. The human was still applying pressure to Edward's leg, looking after him with a familiarity that almost made Roy's chest ache. Al was watching her like a hawk to make sure she made no move to hurt his brother or commander.
It was the human, surprisingly, who broke the silence. "Ed," She said without removing her hands from the wound, "You have a whole lot of explaining to do."
Loathe as he was to admit it, Roy actually agreed with the human on this account. "She's right, though she should know her place." He glared at her and she poked her tongue out at him, before returning her concentration to what she was doing. "Edward, if you would start at the beginning and take us through?"
Alphonse nodded. "Yeah, Brother. Care to explain what's going on?"
The human girl did a double take. "Screw the beginning!" She said, lifting one hand off the wound and pointing at Alphonse. She looked directly into Edward's eyes before continuing. "Explain what he just said first."
End part 2
A/n: Well. That's probably the best chapter I've written in a while. Hopefully this means I'm getting out of my rut and back into the swing of things. S'also the longest.
Now, before I get rants on how 'OOC' Ed seems in this chapter, let me just explain something. Ed is clinically depressed in this fiction and he's already shown he's been prone to fits of instability when he had his breakdown. Also, he just woke up from having his leg burnt off so he's allowed to be a bit angry. The second fit is basically because he was still so high strung from the first.
And anyway. Things I have learnt from this chapter: One. Winry is SMART. And AWESOME. Of course, I already knew this, but I didn't know just HOW smart.
And two: ...My Ling muse is evil. And this is my interpretation of Ling. He's not his usual scatterbrained self, because I think he's really very, very smart underneath all that. Okay. I'm gonna shut up now.
Leave a review? -Shakes her little tin can-